Behold Upon a Pale Horse
by From Dust to Ashes
Summary: Modern AU. A Hyrulian Special Operations Warfare Team is sent in to capture a high-priority target: the head of a Gerudo terrorist cell. But when the mission goes awry, Link Avalon, Guardian Squad Leader, is placed in a bad spot. Rated M for strong language, gore, violence, and torture.
1. Insertion

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 3:34 AM_

* * *

The marines were in the air long before dawn. Three six-man squads left sitting in the frigid troop bays of the trio of Loftwing fast-transport aircraft: compact, high-wing planes that remained nimble despite the marines' combined bulk. For close to an hour the Loftwings had matched the manic and psychotic undulations of the desert dunes beneath them and now-as they jerked wildly to and fro to avoid several high-reaching petrified trunks of a once thriving forest beneath them-Lieutenant Commander Link Avalon had to struggle to keep his teeth from chattering.

Like the other soldiers, Avalon wore dark desert tan fatigues and body armor that encased everything vital from his neck to his knees in fifteen kilograms of charcoal black impact plating. His shock helmet bulwarked his unshaved head, its polarized silver visor obscuring his blocky jaw and dark eyes. The only place where the commander's tanned bronze skin showed was at his wrist, a slight strip exposed where his polymer layered gloves didn't quite reach all the way to his combat jacket.

But even with the gloves, Link's fingers were cramped with the cold and nervousness. Squeezing his hands, and by extension, his bulky gloves together, to keep his blood flowing, he checked the mission clock in his visor's heads-up display (HUD). Just as the luminous green numbers ticked off to 00:58:23, the planes crested the top of several crumbing dunes, and the Special Operation forces had their first direct view of their objective: one of many small buildings inside the Gerudo Fortress; Hyrule's top brass had gotten wind of an apparent terrorist ring that had several attacks planned in Hyrule, and they hadn't been keen on waiting around while Hyrulian citizens got shot at. The Hyrulian SpecOps team had been sent in to capture the target, a man, which, apparently, the Gerudo only had a small handful of living among their ranks, by the man of Ganondorf Dragmire who was at the head of this terrorist ring.

"Two minutes!" Link called out, his voice warped and amplified in the acoustic troop bays of the transports. He and his team moved through a well-rehearsed drill; slapping magazines into their weapons with audible clicks, yanking charging handles, and switching fire-selector switches to full automatic. It was a symphony of metallic-sounding snaps that went unheard in the rushing night wind as the Loftwings hurtled down the backslope of the hills and came to jarring, abrupt nose-up stops on the back edge of the city. The thrusters of the planes whined and rotated downward to keep the VTOL (Vertical TakeOff and Landing) aircraft steady as the strike team undid safety harnesses, hopped out onto the soft sand, and began to run.

Avalon, the leader of the strike team's Guardian squad, looked left and right, seeing as the other two squads came rushing out of their own strike craft. Noticing how the slight blue flare of the Loftwing thrusters stood out in the dark pre dawn air, he knew that speed was essential if the squads were going to reach the terrorist lair undetected. So he set a brisk pace, legs pumping, night-vision from his visor tinting everything around him a ghastly green. After hurdling a low chain-link fence, he wove quickly through piles of plastic crates and wooden pallets that littered the parking lot of what appeared to be nothing more than a rundown vehicle repair shop.

By the time Link and his squad reached the shop's front door, they were all winded and breathing heavily. If it hadn't been for the full-wraparound visors of the soldier's helmets, their breath would have billowed about them, bone white, in the frigid desert air. They didn't usually wear heavy blast gear for rapid surgical strikes, but previous experience had taught Avalon that terrorists normally booby-trapped their dens, and this time, the SpecOps team's commanding officer (CO) didn't want any chances taken.

Link brought his chin down on a pressure pad inside his helmet, sending a short burst of static across the squads' encrypted radio COM (Communications Online, Military) channels: an "in position" signal for Commander Raven, leader of Shield squad, and Lieutenant Tetra Harkinian, leader of Rainbow squad, both of which were positioned by the house's back entrance. Receiving the same signal in a response, he pushed away from the building's rough adobe wall, raised an armored knee to his chest, and smashed his boot against the thin flimsy door, just above the lock.

The Office of Hyrulian Intelligence (OHI) had suggested there would be stiff resistance. But as it turned out, most of the people inside the room, all female, were unarmed. Those that were carried small caliber sidearms; inconsequential weapons whose rounds clattered off Avalon's armor as he and his squad rushed into the small building, weapons up and scanning for any potential targets.

What the SpecOps team knew that OHI didn't was that the real threat would come from the tangos that weren't firing-the ones with hands free who might trigger hidden explosives and the entire building to smoldering smithereens. The one woman who dared took a three-round burst to the head from the Lieutenant Commander's silenced assault rifle and flopped backwards onto the dirt floor as her fingers twitched. Link watched a small, cylindrical silver object slipped slowly from her outstretched palm. A detonator. Rolling slightly from her opened fingers, it hit the floor with a harmless ping, then curved around in a small circle for several inches.

Seeing the major threat neutralized, the strike force refocused fire and let the pistol wielding terrorists have it. The Commander's M55 assault rifle was a heavy firearm, firing 6.8x43mm rounds at 300 rounds per minute (RPM). But even he found it hard to believe that its round could do so much damage as it spat round after round out the barrel, ripping ugly holes in his target's beige cleanroom suits. Some of the terrorists Link targeted dropped like stones, eyes rolled into the back of their heads. Others seemed to dance macabrely as the bullets drummed a dull percussion into them, spinning bloody circles onto the dull, brick red floor.

One woman pulled a large looking gun from a crate, not bothering to remove the whole thing from its box before putting the stock to her shoulder. Link put her in his sights, centering the front sight post within the rear aperture sight expertly. He pulled the trigger without hesitation, a trio of rounds striking her right shoulder. A spurt of blood geysered outward; flecks of crimson staining the ground in front of her. Instinctively, she pulled the trigger as she flinched and, as she fell, a line of bullets flew out and struck the wall. The adobe bricks crumbled under the hail of lead, sending white dust and sand everywhere into the air. Another volley of tracer rounds from Link's teammates sent her body to the ground, hard.

Another Gerudo tried diving for the silver detonator. Link swept his rifle her torso, his rifle barrel tracing the arc of her dive. Her back lit up as red hot lead struck her body and sizzled. The glow of the bullets in her torso was easily visible in the dim, dark morning. She fell down, hard, far short of her intended destination. Another bullet to her neck served as confirmation that she would get down, and would stay down.

Two others tried to prop up tables as barricades, as well as a place to shield them from Hyrulian fire. Unfortunately, when one tried to take cover, one would normally want said cover to be bulletproof. Link jumped to the floor as a hand reached up above the table, rifle in hand. Muzzle flashes played hell with his night vision but all the rounds went wide, overshooting him by a good twenty feet. Avalon waited until there was a lull in the firing; one of them was reloading. He sprung up and shouldered his rifle. He layered the rest of his magazine into the tables, spreading the bullets in a left-right-left-right pattern. Hurdling over the table, he saw two corpses, bullet holes riddling each of them. Both bodies were still smoking. Link kicked the tables down.

Start to finish, the firefight lasted less than twenty seconds. A dozen bodies lay scattered on the floor, dead; blood stained the workhouse floor, bright red splashes contrasting sharply with the dull gray oil stains. The Hyrulian SpecOps team hadn't suffered any casualties or wounded.

"Hell." Harkinian's clear voice filled the COM. "We didn't even change magazines."

The marines dragged all of the corpses over to the corner of the warehouse, some leaving trails of slick blood as they were carried. Then the Hyrulians flipped over all the bodies, checking for their target. Link placed his hands on the shoulder and leg of one, then rolled her over. Female. He looked up at the rest of his squad, who shook their heads at them. So all of them here were women.

"Target isn't here, sir," reported Saria Greenleaf.

Avalon nodded in acknowledgement. He knew what would happen next; the kinds of questionable actions they would have to do to get the intelligence his officers required. But he also knew these were the things a smart soldier didn't do without a direct order.

"OHI believes the tangos you just engaged may have intelligence on the target's location," Avalon's  
CO said over the channel. "Take the gloves off, Avalon. My authorization."

While the Link's squad stood watch, Raven's and Harkinian's quickly brought the four Gerudo who had survived the firefight to their knees in the center of the room. All had their wrists tied behind their backs, bound with black plastic zip ties. Avalon met Raven's polarized-visor gaze and nodded his head once. Without a moment's hesitation, Raven raised his thick soled boots and brought it down hard on the nearest Gerudo's outstretched calves.

The woman waited a full second before screaming, as if she were surprised that the thud of the squad commander's boot hitting the floor was louder than the sound of her tibia cracking. Raven waited patiently for her to take a breath, then, through his helmet's loudspeaker, asked, "Dragmire. Where is he?"

Link guessed that one broken leg would be enough. But the woman being interrogated was tough- uneager to rat out to agents of a government that most in her country despised. She didn't ask for mercy, or try to toss out any of the normal legal threats. She just sat there, one of her leg's askew at an odd angle, glowering into the Commander's visor. Then Raven repeated the action, and broke the other leg. Without her legs to balance her, she fell face first onto the hard brick floor. A series of small cracks sounded, like sticks of chalk against an unforgiving chalkboard, as her teeth snapped.  
"Next it's your arms." He knelt next to the woman, palmed her head, then wrenched it suddenly sideways. "Then it doesn't get so pretty afterwards."

"Downstairs. Under the building." The words bubbled out of her mouth. As Harkinian motioned her squad to the door that apparently led to the rooms below, she and her team moved towards it, weapons drawn. As Raven began to hoist the bleeding Gerudo over his shoulder, Link caught his gaze as he shook his head.

"No time. Neutralize them all." There was no sympathy in his voice, though he still clenched his jaw as the Commander drew his M7 pistol and shot each woman twice in the chest. The four women fell backwards and did not move. But Raven gave them all the dead check anyways: a bullet to each of their foreheads. The scent of blood filled the air, but was rendered unknown to all of the Hylians, thanks to air quality scrubbers inside their helmets. It was just another advancement in the future of warfare.

"These bastards don't know it, but Goddess squad has just arrived."

"Ooh-rah."

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Hey guys. I'm back again! :D This time, with a style that I normally don't write. But please review and tell me what I can improve on! Count on somewhat frequent updates. Joseph Kuo OUT!


	2. Hitting a Snag

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 3:41 AM_

Thuds of a dozen rubber-soled boots rang out in the long corridor as the concrete walls stretched onwards for what seemed to be a good hundred meters. Kicking a door in, Avalon fired four shots. Barely a second later, four brass shells hit the floor, followed by two bodies. He checked his mission HUD: the mission timer now read 1:05:25. They need to move faster, but Goddess Team still hadn't found their objective. Meanwhile, his fellow marines followed his example, kicking each door in in a systematic room check for the target.

Harkinian stepped over a body on the ground then fired a sustained volley of bullets to her left. "Clear left!"

Avalon rushed forward and swept the room to her right with the barrel of his own rifle.

"Clear right!"

As the strike force neared the last room left underground, Raven strode forward with a seven-banger in hand. Standard procedure would call for the door to be kicked down and the room searched, but the occupants in the last room most likely had heard the commotion outside and were bound to be armed. So Darunia, Guardian's heavy weapons specialist, reached to his side and unhooked a C4 breaching charge. Peeling off the adhesive sticker, he stuck the charge to the door, right above the locking mechanism and then pressed his back into the wall on the left side of the door while Raven flanked the right side, flashbang in hand.

"Fire in the hole!" Darunia's cool voice crackled over the COM. Two seconds later, the shaped charge exploded, sending the door right off its hinges and into the room. For Avalon, time seemed to slow down.

Raven pulled the pin on the seven-banger as soon as the door went off and used his wrist to propel the grenade into the room...

The three Gerudo inside raised their weapons, preparing for any attacker to try to storm into the room...

The flashbang bounced off the floor with a slight _ping_...

The women looked at the small cylindrical object for a second, as if trying to register the meaning of the grenade...

_CRACK. _

The first pop went off with a loud and bright flash, effectively blinding anyone inside the room...

_CRACK! CRACK!_

Avalon pushed himself off the wall and pointed his weapon upwards, while simultaneously dropping to one knee...

_CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!_

Putting the leftmost woman in his sights, Link's bulky finger tightened on the trigger...

_CRACK! _

And he gunned down the armed Gerudo in a hail of automatic 6.8mm rifle fire, sweeping them from left to right.

"Tangos down. Move up." As the Hyrulians flooded into the room, the first thing they noticed were the wall to wall photos that lined the interior of the room, along with a single desk and a vacant chair. Avalon took a deep breath, then relayed the bad news back to the Tactical Operations Center (TOC). "Command, the primary objective is not here, I repeat, primary object _is not_here."

To the perspiring officers in the cramped TOC satellite floating in Earth's stratosphere, the operation had just gone from initially smooth to a complete fail. The efforts of dozens of officers and undercover operatives had resulted in faulty intel.

"Alright marines, listen up. Mission objectives are being redirected. Take all the intel you can get in the room, then fall back to the extraction point. Command out."

"Roger." Firing a bullet into each of the bodies to make sure they were really dead, Avalon put the rest of his magazine into the corpses. His bolt catch caught on the lip of his magazine, shells smoking as they rolled around on the gray concrete floor. "Squad, regroup on me. Darunia, photographs," Avalon said, pointing at all the photos pinned to the walls, scattered around on desks, notebooks. Darunia nodded and took out a compact digital camera and began to photograph everything in view. Changing his COM freq to the command frequency, then broadcast, "Sir, if our information was faulty before, that's about to change. This place is a goldmine."

"Copy that. Avalon, have your team collect everything you can for an operations playbook. Names, contacts, places, everything." TOC told him, "There is an extraction bird, call-sign GODDESS Actual, E.T.A., five minutes. Get that intel. TOC out."

Avalon looked up, just as Darunia finished the photographing. Something in his head had just clicked, and something felt wrong here, like an itch that he couldn't scratch. Why would there be multiple guards in a single room, just waiting for a strike force to hit? Unless...they wanted them to be here, knowing that the intelligence would lead them here, like a bear to honey. Which would mean-

_"Get down!"_Avalon yelled, a second before the rigged incendiary device beneath the desk exploded. He curled into a ball as debris and a pressure wave washed over him, flames licking hungrily over the desk. Avalon slowly got up; he could feel his whole body hurt. His eyes weren't working either; it looked like everything he looked at was through a haze. Slowly, he started to see things clearly, though he still hurt all over. He looked left and right, and saw his fellow marines gradually getting up again. Propping himself up from the floor on his hands, he tried to blink away the darkness from his vision. "Squad, status report!" He yelled, his voice raspy and guttural. One by one, Guardian Squad acknowledged.

"Guardian-Two, operational."

"Guardian-Three, operational."

"Guardian-Four, okay."

"Guardian-Five, good to go!"

"Guardian-Six, still kicking."

Raising his M55, the Lieutenant Commander checked to make sure it was functional, pulling back the charging handle just a hair to make sure a round was still loaded.

Raven cut over the COM, "Alright Goddess! Time to get the hell out of here. I think we've overstayed our welcome. You know the music, now it's time to dance." A chorus of hoo-rahs followed his statement, and they rushed up through the stairwell as fast as their disorientation would allow. But as soon as they had reached the front door, the entire town seemed to be shooting at them. Fire came from every direction, and it seemed a lot more potent than the small caliber handguns carried by the previous hostiles.

"Goddess squad, we're pinned down. Guardian, go through the back entrance and buy us some cover!" Raven yelled, voice on the verge cracking in the stressful environment.

"Guardian, let's roll!" Link and the rest of his squad exited through the back door. The first thing they saw was an entire MG (Machine Gun) nest on the roof of the building opposite them. Unclipping a fragmentation grenade from his MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) Vest, he pulled the pin and threw it as far as he could. Two seconds later, an explosion that sent wood, plastics, plaster, and metal shrapnel blew on the rooftop. "Tangos down!"

Then bullets suddenly started pinging around them, the pavement around them throwing up chips and bits of concrete, sand, and debris. Ducking back under cover, Avalon said into the COM, "Shield and Rainbow, your exit is going to be clear for a couple of seconds. Haul ass out!"

"Acknowledged," came Raven's ever-cool voice.

Then to his own squad, Link told them, "Prepare to engage, we're taking fire from multiple directions."  
As more and more enemy forces appeared from the rooftops and started taking potshots at the squad, Avalon distributed a bad dose of 6.8mm death amongst them, sending bone, flesh, and shreds of brain matter all over. Eventually, the SpecOps team began moving into autopilot and into their standard _modus operandi_: Lethal killing machine mode.

"Three, moving up. Cover!"

"Two covering!"

"One reloading, cover!"

"Four covering!"

But after about two more minutes, Avalon yelled, "There's too many of them! Let's get out of here."

"Hooah," Four replied. The small group entered the nearest building and began climbing the stairs when shots rang out again. "They're moving around upstairs!" Whoever had yelled that was right, and on the top the stairs, firing blindly down the stairwell. In unison, the squad dropped him with automatic fire. Rifle shells clattered noisily on the floor, smoking as they ejected from the rifles.

"Get the hell away from those windows and secure the top floor! Move! Move! Get a flashbang in there!" yelled Avalon, pointing a room with an open door on the top floor.

"Flash out!" responded Six. He pulled the pin on the flashbang, counted to two, then threw the stun grenade overhand into the open door frame. There was a loud explosion, a puff of smoke, and the squad burst in guns firing.

"GODDESS Actual, we are combat ineffective up here! We're taking heavy fire from adjacent buildings, can you assist, over?"

"Roger, Guardian. Lighting 'em up!" came the ever-cool Navy flier voice. From the small window in the floor, Link saw two streaks of gray flew overhead. Then a building about a half a block away went down spectacularly, fire blossoming from its center, when another missile smashed into it. As if in slow motion, the building toppled, cut right in two. What was left collapsed, layer by layer, floor by floor. All thirty floors fell in slightly less than two seconds. After that, Guardian started moving towards the evac point.

"Goddess Squad, this is Guardian One, we're on our way to the evac point. Heavy resistance," the Lieutenant reported. He fired another burst at a running Gerudo who fell hard to the floor.

"Copy that Guardian One. Shield is on our way. Good luck Guardian, Shield out."

As Link checked his HUD, he looked for the blue arrow that marked the evac point, along with the distance from that point: 156 meters. Now that they were almost to city limits, all that was left to the point was a short sprint across open ground.

"This is GODDESS Actual. We're almost at the LZ (Landing Zone). What's your status down there, over?"

"We're on our way to the LZ! Guardian, let's go!" The six strike force members sprinted out across the stretch, keeping eyes peeled for any movement.

Then the situation soured as Harkinian said, "They're bracketing our position with mortars, keep moving but watch your back," her voice garbled with static. Avalon muttered a short curse, but kept his eyes on the path, cursing again as he tripped on the uneven, rubble strewn ground. Three more flanking insurgents dropped around him, hit by the rest of the strike force behind them even as explosions began to dotted the clearing. Suddenly, the ground in front of him exploded, swallowing up Five. She didn't even have time to scream; she was there, and the next second he simply wasn't. It was as if the ground before her had just opened up, as if the earth itself was in a rage. Her body ragdolled, flying several feet into the air before collapsing on the ground. Glancing backward, Avalon saw Five's smoking body laying on the ground, her leg and back badly cut and burned. Stopping and steadying his shooting stance, he dropped to an armored knee and fired at the nearest pursuing terrorist. Seeing his action, Two and Three mimicked his actions, but he shook his head, knowing that it was a futile gesture. Link pointed at the extraction bird.

"Get out! I'll hold them."

Two fired one last burst, then yelled, "Fuck!" He knew what staying behind meant, but after hooking his arms around Five's armpits, he dragged her toward the extraction zone, but knew that it would be too slow before the rest of the hostile force caught up to them. "I've got you, Five, hang on! GODDESS, request danger close fire." As he said that, he reached for, and pulled the pin on, a red smoke flare. GODDESS' pilot's voice came over the COM.

"Roger that. I have a visual on red smoke and multiple hostiles." A short pause, then as a hail of bullets rained down from above onto the Gerudo force, a cheery, "Hot _damn!_"

As the Loftwing helicopter came into view, it was instantly targeted by RPG's and small arms fire, bullets and rockets leaving colored streaks in the sky. The helicopter wasn't shy to fire back, raining down a heavy barrage of 40mm high explosive shells on anyone who dared to trade bullets.

"GODDESS coming in hot, repeat, coming in hot! Load up fast, or we're not getting out at all."  
As the troop bay door opened up, the fifteen strike force members piled in, Guardian Two and Five almost on the loading ramp.

"Guardian One, what the hell do you think you're doing? Get your ass in!" yelled Raven.

"Negative. RPG fire is gonna knock out whatever evac bird you try to get in the air," he explained, even as he fired another automatic burst into a terrorist. She fell backwards, crimson flesh and blood flying outward.

"Guardian One, we need you in here, _now! _That is a direct order, Lieutenant Commander."

"Negative. I'll hold them off. You better take off now, GODDESS, before RPG fire catches up," warned Link. He kept firing his M55, until it jammed, dirt getting into the chamber and fouling up the internal mechanisms. Throwing down the useless rifle, he drew his pistol and kept on firing. In the background, he became aware of the buffeting of the helicopter as its rotors began to spin and take-off. "Good luck Goddess," he whispered under his breath. Then as he dumped an empty magazine from his M7 pistol, a heavy caliber round pierced his body armor right in his left shoulder. Without pausing, he threw the pistol to his right hand and kept firing, as a cool shadow from GODDESS fell over him, then moved away.

As more and more Gerudo surrounded him, they poured fire into his body, and as a bullet finally managed to penetrate his body armor, a round hit his right chest. Slowly, he could feel a darkness encroaching on his vision, and he knew that it was the first sign of unconsciousness. Avalon squeezed off two more rounds, and then his hand felt as if it were made of lead. In the brief moment before he went unconscious, he saw a dozen of armed Gerudo surround his body, and he would've sworn he felt his body being lifted.

And then-

-nothing.

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Finished another chapter in a day. I have now idea how. LOL. Please review! ))))))


	3. A Warm Welcome

_Unknown location, Unknown time frame_

Floating, floating. A sensation of weightlessness fell over his body, and then a feeling of falling as though through the bottomless pit of his unconsciousness. It would have been a difficult feat to put what he was feeling into words, even if his brain had been awake enough to do so. But then, as his presence traveled through what seemed to be a never-ending netherland, the dream began.

It was an unfamiliar dream, but yet still a pleasant one, like an unexpected piece of good news. The best part was that it even had nothing to do with war. He was back in Ordon Village- the decently large sized hamlet that he had been born in, raised in, long since razed by an aggressive Gerudo territorial land grab. But if he had remembered how his birthplace had been destroyed, his mind ignored it; all around, laughter surrounded him, like a pleasant warm glow that suffused his body with mirth.

A smooth female voice called him by his name- Link. A moment later, a pair of arms were wrapped around him protectively, and he snuggled closer into the motherly figure. As he moved inward into the light, he recognized the familiar scent of a flowery soap. The unseen woman said something nice to him, and it felt like an old memory in which his mother ruffled his hair. It was one of the only that he still held onto from his childhood. He tried to say something nice to her in return, but his voice caught in his throat, refusing to be budged from his lips.

A thought entered his mind: if only he could see the woman, then maybe he could talk to her. Objective in mind, he tried to _see_her, to successfully pierce the mysterious veil that obscured the woman from his view. Slowly, slowly, the haze fell away from her figure like a mason chipping away at a stone to reveal an intricate beauty beneath it. His efforts revealed a striking woman, with large eyes, a straight nose, and a full set of lips upon fair skin.

The scene then wavered for a second, indistinct, as if looking through a heat haze, or a reflection in a pond. In a brief sliver of a second, the woman who held him in his arms changed drastically. Now, she had a cascade of dark hair, azure eyes, and pale skin.

He knew her name: Admiral Zelda Nohansen.

Admiral Nohansen had selected him for the GODDESS project. While most believed that the current generation of GODDESS had been reaped from the best of the Hyrulian military, only a handful of people knew the truth behind GODDESS' newest "initiates."

Admiral Nohansen's project took specially-screened orphans whose parents had normally been killed in combat or by Gerudo raids, either with their permission, or, fairly often, simply had them abducted. In many ways, Admiral Nohansen was the only "mother" that the children ever really had known.

But she wasn't his parent, nor was the flickering picture of Lieutenant Sheik Nohansen, the Admiral's brother who had instilled a sense of courage, fear, and, eventually, a grudging respect in each GODDESS initiate, that appeared to replace her.  
Then the dream changed, like a small cloud of fog being blown through his mind. A dark, nebulous shape loomed behind the Mother/Nohansen figure. He didn't know what it was, but in his mind, it had already been labeled as a threat-and he had been trained to use his surroundings and his body to neutralize threats.

His survival and combat instincts kicked in, adrenaline coursing through him as he began to analyze the area around him. It was some sort of bare plane, as if he was standing on an unfinished universe. He spied a rifle near him, a familiar shape of a powerful M55. If he could place himself between the mother figure and the rapidly approaching threat, his body armor could take the force of a blow and then he would be free to return fire.

Link moved quickly, and the dark shape in front of him howled as if it understood his intentions to best it in a battle. But the beast was impossibly fast, and was on him in a matter of seconds. Wrapping his hands around the comforting figure of the assault rifle, he turned to open fire- only to discover, to his horror, that he couldn't lift the weapon. The arms that held the rifle were small, the muscles atrophied. His protective armor was gone, and his body belonged to that of his six-year old self. He was powerless in the face of the threat, and he roared back at the beast in his own rage and fear as it clawed him.

He gasped, feeling the flesh beneath his thin shirt rip and tear, a warm liquid trickling down his chest...

And the dream started to fade, and a darkness appeared in front of the marine's eyes. Slowly, Avalon tried to take stock of his surroundings, but all his eyes could see was a black inkiness. After trying to blink away the darkness from his vision, the marine realized that there was an actual cloth around his head that blocked his vision, and that it was soaked.

Trying to calm himself, he took a deep breath, then had to gasp for air as he nearly inhaled the water that had just been splashed on him.

"So, the mighty Hylian awakes, huh?" A cold female voice asked, most likely Gerudo from her accent, mockingly, somewhere to his left. He didn't respond; OHI regulations forbid him from responding to any possible interrogators. "You know, you've been just sleeping there for a couple days. You should get some exercise ya' know," the unknown voice dripping with false sympathy. Avalon felt arms yanking him up from a sitting position up to a somewhat upright position. His knees buckled under his unfamiliar after several days of being tied up to a chair. "Oh come on. You just need some exercise now, get used to walking around." Link winced as an elbow was driven into the back of his rib cage, forcing him to stand somewhat straight. "Alright now, start walking, bitch." He gasped again when she struck the small of his back with an open palm. She began to half drag, half guide him to an unknown location. As an unknown light began to gradually warm the bag around his head, with only a slight noise as a warning, the isolation bag was ripped off none too gently.

The Lieutenant Commander winced as the foreign light flooded his eyes, as his pupils dilated and he looked around in his peripheral vision to examine what was around him. Then he stifled a scream as the female in front of him crushed his groin with an unforgiving knee. As his legs gave out, the Gerudo held Link up.

"Aw, too much for the poor Hylian?" She grabbed his shoulders again and drove her knee into the soft flesh of his genitals, and Avalon bared his teeth in agony. The Gerudo then bent him over, so that his upper torso was hanging over her knee. He expected her to knee him again. Then she grabbed his head and shoved his nose directly into her patella. Link's lungs involuntarily sent a puff of air out as he coughed in pain. The woman then dug her knee once more into his nose, crushing his cartilage against hard bone. And this time, bone won, and his nose shattered. A gush of dark liquid poured out of his ruined nose like water from a spout.

"Oh man, hey I think you're bleeding. Here, wipe it off with this," as she threw a right hook into his chin. Link fell backwards, feeling his skin break. As he lay on the ground, he saw a small dark-skinned crowd forming a large circle around him and his torturer. Some were giggling, some were pointing, and all wore smug smiles in approval. Then, the Gerudo interrogator walked to where he was sitting, and pulled him up. Putting the isolation bag on his head once more, ignoring the steady flow of blood from his head, she began to push him through the crowd. The assembly began to yell for his blood, and the woman shoving him through them had no problem satisfying their thirstiness for a sight of the Hyrulian being humiliated. As they got further into the crowd, they began to get more rowdy, and began to strike at the Hylian marine. One screaming woman reached out and wrenched his bruised testicles sideways. Link opened his mouth in a silent expression of pain. Slowly, after several more minutes of abuse from the baying crowd, he felt the absence of others, besides the single woman that pushed him back to his previous holding area. The light that had been there slowly faded, and Avalon surmised that he was being held somewhere underground.

"You know, you don't talk much," she said, once they had stopped walking. He tried to mark her location from where her voice came, maybe try to take her out with a lucky punch and make his way out. But he had to keep her talking.

"As per OHI regulation number sixteen, subsection four, paragraph two, I am forbidden to communicate in any way with my captors that might cause the leakage of classified intelligence of the Hyrulian governme-"

"Yeah yeah, throw that legal bullshit around, but it isn't going to get you out any faster. After you killed fourteen of my sisters in that raid, I'm not particularly in a generous mood towards you eithe-" She was cut off as Avalon threw an uppercut, then a left hook. He was slightly off; the uppercut only grazed her chin. The left punch missed completely hissing an inch from her face, but as she inhaled slightly in surprise, he used that to get a better idea of where she was. Kicking his leg to where he thought was between hers, Link hooked it backwards to trip her. The Gerudo, however, recovered quickly and threw her elbows into his face in an aggressive volley of punches. He grunted as her elbow found his broken nose once more. Congealed blood dripped slowly inside his bag, staining the bottom inch a crimson red. Avalon continued to throw punches, hoping that if he could just get one good shot, he could knock her out.

Then an electric shock rocked him to his core, as the Gerudo hit him with some sort of baton. He knew what it was. A "Humbler," or N3 non-lethal stun device, was used by most OHI spookes when laying into a prisoner to extract information. And while Link doubted that she was as skilled in wielding it, he had no intention in ending up convulsing in a puddle of his own urine. The main problem, however, was that he couldn't see, and that severely hindered his efforts in trying to avoid the electric baton. Then another knee rammed into his genitals, causing him to double over, as the Humbler came crashing down on his exposed back. As he collapsed, the Gerudo let him fall on the floor, body smoking, before walking to the exit. With a loud bang, the door or gate or whatever was meant to keep him in here slammed shut with a loud _boom_, followed by a click of a latch turning.

Then a, "Welcome to Gerudo Valley, _bitch_."

Despite how hopeless the situation seemed, there was a single hope that he could hold onto: every Hyrulian combat troop was implanted with a CNI (Cybernetic Neural Interface) chip in their skull. They emitted a high intensity, encrypted beacon, usually used for FOF (Friend or Foe) tags in close quarters combat to avoid collateral damage, but could also be used as trackers. As long as he survived this ordeal and held out long enough, OHI could track his location and get him out of this pit. It was his only chance left.

* * *

Whoo hoo. New chapter. Please read and review and critique!


	4. Lord of the Flies

A/N: I changed Sheik to a Lieutenant, instead of a doctor. Made it fit better. Oh and in case you didn't understand, Link and all his buddies are the second generation of GODDESSes. There is a first generation, but they were effectively "retired" when Link and his buds were trained.

* * *

_Ordon Village, 1986 BM, 5:56 AM_

The entire village was charred to an ashen crisp. In some isolated areas there were still fires blazing, casting delicate, pale writhing shadowsupon the ground that belied its true destructive nature. Occasionally, there still stood a wooden beam, or a stone chimney that sagged gently, as if mourning the loss of its house.

"Holy shit..." The paramedic's awed voice rang out in the cold silence.

The search and rescue team had done nothing, couldn't do anything, for any of the people here. Most were already dead by the time they got here, from bullet wounds, or burns. The rest had injuries deemed Delta Ward (Delta is the Ward for the severely and critically injured that are expected to die no matter the actions performed by medical crew. In combat situations, soldiers are sent to the Delta Ward to prioritize the other wounded that have the best chance of survival).

A few children, however, had survived. Either by a miracle, or the arrogant Gerudos had left them to die out in the frigid atmosphere of the Faron Woods. Many had small cuts and bruises, and three were slowly slipping into shock from the recent events, but all had treatable injuries.

"Pack 'em up, then head back." The children were herded into the back of a waiting ambulance, and the paramedics began the long drive back to Kakariko Village.

* * *

_Unknown location, 1988 BM, 7:12_

Sheik watched the incoming Loftwings. The blocky jet-powered craft were so distant they were only specks against the setting sun. He hit the magnification on his faceplate and saw lines of fire tracing their re-entry vectors. They would touch down in three minutes.

In the last six months he had developed a training regime tougher than the very first original GODDESS program. He had created obstacle courses, firing ranges, classrooms, mess halls, and dormitories from what had been jungle and scrub plain.

He had received every piece of equipment he had requested from MarSpecWep (Marines Special Weapons). Guns, ammunition, dropships, tanks- even samples of Gerudo tech and weaponry had appeared, as if by sleight of hand.

All personnel were accounted for: six dozen hand picked drill instructors, physical therapists, doctors, nurses, psychologists, and the all-important cooks... all here except the most critical person who was now on the incoming transports: Senior Chief Petty Officer Impa of the Sheikah.

Impa had, a dozen years ago, trained Sheik and every other first generation GODDESS. She would be invaluable in preparing the new breed of GODDESS, but he wasn't going to be the solution to all of Sheik's problems.

After poring over every detail of the new children recruit's files, Sheik discovered that they didn't match the perfect psychological and genetic markers set in Admiral Nohansen's original selection protocols. She had warned him that they would have to draw from a "less statistically robust" group. These recruits wouldn't be anything like what they originally had in mind.

And this would only add to a long list of challenges. With a final target class four times larger than the first GODDESS', a severely truncated training schedule, and the need for the GODDESSes in the war increasing every month, Sheik, in fact, expected a disaster.

The Loftwing jet transports swooped down on their final approach and angled their thrusters. The sod on the parade field rippled like velvet in the impending gale. One by one, they gingerly touched down.

Sheik blinked and accessed the candidates' data on the heads-up display inside the silver visor of his bulky body armor. Each name had a serial number and linked to background files. There were 497 of them, a collection of four-, five-, and six-year-old children that he somehow had to forge into a fighting force unparalleled in the history of Hylian warfare.

The hatch on the nearest Loftwing opened with a pneumatic hiss, and a tall woman strode out. Impa had aged well. Her trim body looked chiseled from ironwood, but the hair was now silver, and there were deep creases around his eyes and a set of ragged scars that ran brow to chin.

"Chief." Sheik resisted the urge to snap to attention as Impa saluted. As odd as it felt, Sheik was now her commanding officer.

He returned the salute.

"Senior Chief Petty Officer Impa reporting for duty, sir." After the first GODDESS program, Chief Impa had, at her request, been reassigned to active duty. He'd fought the Gerudo in five battles, and been awarded two purple hearts.

"You were briefed on the flight?"

"Completely," Impa said. As she looked over Sheik over in his suit, emotions played over her face: awe, approval, and resolve. "We'll get these new recruits trained, sir."

That was precisely the response that Sheik had been hoping for. Impa was a legend among the GODDESSes. She had tricked, trapped, and tortured them as children. They all hated, and then learned to admire the woman. She had taught them how to fight. And, more importantly, how to _win. _

"Do they let the GODDESSes drink now?" Impa asked.

"Chief?"

"A bad joke, sir. We might both need one before this day is over," she said. "The new trainees are, well, sir, a little wild. I don't know if either of us is ready for this."

Impa turned towards the Loftwings, inhaled, and yelled, "Recruits, fall out!"

Kids streamed off the dropship ramps. Hundreds tromped onto the field, screaming, and throwing clumps of sod at one another. After being cooped up for hours, they went wild. A few, however, milled near the ships, dark circles under their eyes and they huddle tighter. Adult handlers herded them onto the grass.

"You've read the classic _Lord of the Flies_, sir?" Impa muttered.

"I have," Sheik replied. "But your analogy will not hold. These children will have guidance. They will have discipline. And they will have one thing that no ordinary children have, not even the GODDESS-I candidates. Motivation."

Sheik linked to the camp's PA. He cleared his throat and the sound rumbled over the field like thunder. Nearly five hundred crazed children stopped in their tracks, fell silent, and turned amazed at the giant in the glossy ashen-colored armor.

"Attention, recruits," Sheik said and stood akimbo. "I am Lieutenant Nohansen. You have all endured great hardships to be here. I know each of you has lost your loved ones in Ordon Village, the Zora Domain, from Lake Hylia. The Gerudo have made orphans of you all."

Every child stared at him, some with tears now gleaming in their eyes against the dark night sky, others with pure burning hatred.

"I am going to give you a chance to learn how to fight, a chance to become the best soldiers the OHI has ever produced, a chance to destroy the Gerudo. I am giving you a chance to be like me: a GODDESS."

The kids crowded before him close...but none actually dared to touch the shimmering dark black armor.

'We cannot accept everyone, though," Sheik continued. "There are five hundred of you. We have three hundred training slots. So tonight, Senior Chief Petty Officer Sheikah"- he nodded to the chief- "has devised a way to separate those who truly want this opportunity from those who do not."

Sheik handed her a tablet reader. "Chief?"  
To her credit, Impa registered shock for only a split second. She scanned the tablet, frowned, but nodded.

"Yes, sir," she whispered.

Impa yelled at the children, "You want to be GODDESSes? Then get back on those ships."

They stood shocked, staring at him.

"No? I guess we found a few washouts. You." She pointed to one child at random. "You. And you." The chosen kids locked at each other, at the ground, and then slowly shook their heads.

"No?" Impa said. "Then get on those Loftwings."

They did so, and so did the others, a slow shuffling procession.

"Drill instructors," Impa called out.

Three dozen non-commissioned officers snapped to attention.

"You will find Korok Wing aerial descent units on the field. Load them ASAP and make sure your trainees are properly fitted. Their safe deployment is now your responsibility."

The DIs nodded and ran toward the bundled Korok Wing backpacks.

The Chief turned back to Sheik. "You're going to make them drop?" She raised both eyebrows in surprise. "At night?"

"The Koroks are the safest drop units," Sheik replied.

"With respect, sir, some of them are only four years old."

"Motivation, Chief. If they can do this, they'll be ready for what we have to put them through." Sheik watched the Loftwings fire their jets and scorch the grass. "But just in case," he added, "Deploy all dropships to recover the candidates. There may be accidents."

Impa exhaled deeply. "Yes, sir." She started for the nearest Loftwing.

"Chief," Nohansen called after her, "I'm sorry that order had to come from you."

"I understand, sir," Impa replied. "You're their CO. You have to inspire and command their respect. I'm their drill instructor. I get to be their worst nightmare." She gave Sheik a crooked smile and climbed aboard.

* * *

Link clung to the plastic looks on the side of the Loftwing's hull. He stood shoulder to shoulder with the other kids-packed so close that he wouldn't have fallen if he let go. The roar of the Loftwing's jets was deafening, but still he could hear his own heart racing in his chest.

This as the end of a journey that had started years ago. He had heart jets like this when it started, the jets of the enemy planes bombing his village. When the Hylians came to take him away, it had been crowded on that bus too...filled with refugees trying to get as far away, as fast as they could, from the monsters.

Only one in six people had made it.

Sometimes Link wished he hadn't lived and seen the Gerudo kill his family and home.

When the army man had come to visit him in the orphanage and asked if Link wanted to get even with them, he immediately volunteered. No matter what it took, he was going to kill all the Gerudo.

They had given him lots of tests, the written kind, blood tests, and then a month-long trip as the army man collected more and more volunteers. Link had thought the testing was over when they finally got into the Loftwings and came to this new place, but he'd barely touched the ground when they'd been shoved back inside and sent back up into the air.

He'd gotten a glimpse of the one in charge. He wore armor like Link had seen in the fairy tale books: the Good Knight who fought dragons. That's what Link wanted. He was going to wear armor like that one day and kill all the monsters.

"Check your straps," an old Marine woman barked at him and the other kids.

Link tugged at the black backpack that they'd put on him three minutes ago. It weighed almost as much as him, and the traps had been pulled so tight, they cut into his ribs.

"Report any looseness," the woman shouted over the roar of the engines. None of the twenty other kids said anything.

"Recruits, stand by," the woman yelled. He listened into his headphones and then a green light blinked on a panel near his head. The woman punched numbers into a keypad.  
The back of the Loftwing hissed open, the ramp lowered, and a tornado screamed around Link. He yelled; so did the other kids. They all pushed and shoved to the front of the Loftwing's bay.

The old Marine woman stood by the open bay door, unafraid that only a meter to his rear was open sky. He regarded the squirming kids with disgust. Behind him, a dusky orange band marked the edge of the world. Twilight and lengthening shadows slipped over snow-capped mountains.

"You will form a line and jump," the woman shouted. "You will count to then and pull this." He reached up to his left shoulder, grasped the bright handle there and made a pretend pull motion. "Some confusion will be normal."

The kids stared at him. No one moved.

"If you cannot do this," the woman said, "you cannot be a GODDESS. It's your choice."

Link looked at the other kids. They looked at him.

A girl with pigtails and missing her front teeth stepped forward. "I'll go first, sir," she yelled.

"Good girl," he said. "Go right to the edge; hang on to the guide line."

She took the tiniest baby steps to the edge of the Loftwing, then froze. She took three deep breaths, and then with a squeak, she jumped. The wind caught her. Then she vanished into the dark.

"Next!" yelled the old woman.

All the kids, Link included, slowly formed a line. He couldn't believe they were doing this. It was nuts. The next boy got to the edge, looked down and screamed. he fell backward, and scrambled away. "No!" he said. "No way!"

"Next!" the woman called. He didn't give the kid cowering on the deck another glance. The next boy jumped without even looking. And then the next. Then it was Link's turn. He couldn't move his legs.

"Hurry up, loser," the boy behind him said and gave him a shove.

Link stumbled forward- halting only a half step from the edge. He turned and stopped himself from shoving this kid back. The kid was a head taller than Link, and his black hair fell into his eyes, making it seem like he was missing his forehead. Link wasn't afraid of this creep.

He turned back to face the night rushing past him. This was what he was afraid of. Link's legs filled with freezing concrete. The rushing wind was so loud he couldn't hear anything else anymore, not even his hammering heart.

He couldn't move. He was stuck on the edge. There was no way he could jump. But now he was so scared he couldn't even turn around and chicken out either. If he sat down, though, and slowly inched back-

"Go, dumbass!" The creep kid behind him pushed. Hard.

Link fell off the ramp and into the night. He tumbled and screamed until he couldn't breathe. Link saw flashes of the dimming sunset, black ground, the white craps of the mountains, and stars.

He threw up.

_Some confusion will be normal._

The red handle! He had to grab it. He reached up, but there was nothing there. He clawed at his shoulder until two fingers found purchase. Link tugged. There was a ripping sound, and something unraveled from his pack. Link jerked straight, his legs whipping after him, and his teeth snapped together from the sudden bone-jarring deceleration.

The spinning world stopped.

Gasping and blinking away his tears, Link watched and saw the last bit of amber light fade and the stars gently rock back and forth around him.

Overhead, the wind whistled and rippled through a black canopy. Roped connected to Link to this wing, and his hands instinctively grabbed them. As he pulled, the wing turned and angled in that direction. The sudden motion made him dizzy again, so he let go before he threw up twice.

Link squinted and made out shapes swimming around him: black on black like the bats from Ordon. Those had to be the other kids, gliding like he was.

His face heated as he remembered how he'd chickened out at the last minute in the Loftwing...in front of everyone. Even that little girl had jumped.

Link never wanted to be scared like that again. Maybe if he imagined that he was already dead, then there would be nothing to be afraid of. It'd be like he'd died with his parents in Ordon Village.

He mustered his mental image-dead and nothing to fear- and to test it, he looked down. Past his dangling feet lay a two-centimeter green square. After a moment, he realized it was the field where all the Loftwings had landed. Tiny lines snaked from the field illuminated by tiny firefly points.

"Nothing to be scared of," he whispered, trying to convince himself.

Link forced himself to pull the ropes, angle downward, and speed toward the green field. Wind whipped through the black silk wing at tore at Link's face with cold fingers. He didn't care; he wanted down fast. Maybe if he was the first down, he'd show everyone that he wasn't scared.

Link saw tiny people and scorch marks where the Loftwings had burned the grass. And no other parachutes yet. Good. He'd be first, and he'd land right in front of the Knight.

He hit the ground, his kneed pistoned into his chest and knocked the wind out of him. The black wing caught a breeze and jerked him back on his feet. Then it dragged him across the grass and dirt. He gasped for air, but he wasn't scared. Link was angry that he'd look so stupid having to wrestle with this parachute.

The Korok Wing hit the fence, and stuck there, fluttering.

Link got up and unclipped himself from the harness. Something hot trickled down his legs. There was no way he'd been so scared he pissed his pants. With dread, he looked. It was blood. The skin on the back of his legs was raw. He took a tentative step and fire crawled up both thighs.

Link laughed. Blood of piss, what did it matter? He'd made it.

"Hey dumbass. What's so funny?"

Link turned and saw the kid who had pushed him. He lay on the grass, half tangled in his harness. Link marched over to him, ignoring the pain in his legs.

The kid got to one knee and held his hand out to shake. "I'm Rave-"

Link hit him square in the nose. Blood gushed from the kid's face and he reeled over. He was going to pay for shoving him. He was the only one who knew that Link had frozen on the edge and chickened out. He'd have to pay for that, too.

Link started pounding him right and left fists. The kid held up his arms to fend of the blows, but Link still landed a few good ones, skinning his knuckles.

Raven head-butted Link, and he fell off.

Then Raven stood, shook off his harness, and, growling, leapt onto Link. They rolled on the grass, kicking and punching. Link heard a loud snap and he wasn't sure if it was his or Raven's bone breaking; he didn't care, he kept hitting and hitting until blood spilled into his eyes and he couldn't see anymore.

Large hands grabbed Link and pulled him off. Still swinging, Link connected with one of the Marine men, bruising the bone of his eye, and the man dropped him.

"Stand down!" barked a voice, full of godlike authority. Link blinked and wiped blood from his eyes. The silver-haired woman who had given the order to jump stood between him and the other kid.

The Marine man he'd hit pressed one hand to his swollen eye and said, "Chief, these two were going to kill each other."

"I see that," the woman said. She nodded approvingly at Link, then turned to Raven.

Raven ignored the old woman and took a step towards Link with his hands raised.

"I said STAND DOWN!"

Raven dropped his hands and staggered back as if he'd been struck.

"I think you're right Sergeant," the older woman said. "They might really have killed each other." She smiled, only it wasn't a smile. It was more like she was baring her teeth. "Very good. That kind of fight left in them after their first jump? A night jump? My God, I only hope the rest of them are like this.


	5. Enhanced Interrogation

Warning: Descriptions of waterboarding, beating, and sleep deprivation, along with strong language inbound. Basically a description of everything the CIA does in a regular day.  
Yeah. More torture. :|

YAY! :D

* * *

_"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."_

_ -Revelations 6:8 KJV_

* * *

_Unknown location, Unknown time frame_

Link gasped, like a fish out of water. Then he regretted the movement as he inhaled water from the towel tied around his face into his lungs. The sensation was horrible, like someone had set his lungs on fire with a blowtorch. As his arms spasmed and struggled against his restraints, the only reaction was the board beneath him rattling ever so slightly as if taunting him. Adrenaline in his bloodstream, normally serving to bolster his survival instinct, now worked against him; by making him more and more excited, his breathing became more rapid and shallow. This in turn increased the amount of water to be inhaled by his agitated body.

"What's wrong, bitch? Can't handle a bit a water?" A fist somewhere from his right struck his face, snapping his head to the right. As Link coughed, the fist hit again. "Close your mouth, motherfucker. You need water to keep healthy, baby." Steeling his wits, Link waited until the feeling of faintness in his head grew too much, and then inhaled once more. He gagged, as he inevitably swallowed the water that kept dripping through into the back of his esophagus.

Claw-like hands ripped off the towel around his face none too gently, nails scratching skin from his face. Screwing his eyes shut against the brutally bright light, the Gerudo women punched him in his gut. After several seconds, the Hylian began to cough. It felt like his insides were being scrambled starting from the inside and working its way out. One woman hit his back, and he coughed out the water that had been forced into his body with one final raspy hack, splattering the floor beneath him. Then then the towel was put back on his face, the slight moisture still held inside rolling down his face in slight, ice cold beads. The Gerudo waited until the telltale flattening of his chest during his exhale before they poured water on the cloth once again.

The first breath was always the worst, Link thought. As he inhaled, the water slowly dripped into his windpipe. The normal surge of panic from his body came, irrational fears of drowning that evolved slowly, sending images of blood and blackness and death. Link tried to calm himself down as he had before. But this time, it was easier to succumb to the side of his mind that wanted to do nothing but thrash and beat and scream at his torturers until he tore out their throats than to resist.

As the board beneath him began to move backwards, he knew what was coming, and it didn't help his trying to calm down. They had all studied waterboarding and its various techniques in SITTR (Special Interrogation/Torture Techniques Resistance) during their training. Once the board was tilted, head down, the water flow into his mouth and nose would be maximised, resulting in a stronger sense of drowning. The GODDESSes had all gone through sessions of waterboarding designed to toughen them up. What it hadn't instilled in them was the sense of realness and fear that would rush over them and drown them in a flood, figuratively and literally.

Once the board was tilted downward to a forty five degree angle, more water was poured again, like a never ending rush. Link began to blank out, couldn't think about anything, other than an image of him drowning, sinking, dying. His vision went out twice, then a screen of black filled his mind. Red blotches began appear as well, blinking in and out of his "vision." From previous experience, he was on the edge of passing out...

'Come on man. You can do it. Just survive.' Link thought of everything he had back in Hyrule. There wasn't much, but there was his duty to his country. If he could just hold out long enough, he could survive. And that's all that mattered. The Hyrulian could feel his body about to fall under the prolonged effects of waterboarding, which he had encountered before-

-then, his body finally reacting against the invading substance, Link vomited for what had to be the upteenth time today. With nothing in his stomach, the only substance that came up again was a rush of bright-grass-green mixture of bile and water.

"Aw, poor baby can't even hold two gallons of water." As the cloth tied around his face was peeled off, the Hylian whimpered as the harsh lights in the room flooded into his eyes. Forced to squint in the bright luminescence in the room, he was rendered nearly blind to the swift straight kick to his groin, mashing his soft organs against his femur. The pain from his crotch blocked out the pain from his wrists and ankles as he felt the bonds forcing him onto the board untied. Suddenly, his fasteners undone, Link fell to his knees, his legs too weak to support his weight.

Arms wrapped under his armpits and around his biceps and slowly dragged, none too gently, him back to the room that now served as a makeshift cell. This had been the regular schedule for several days now. Or weeks. Or months. Time was hard to keep, especially inside his dark cell, where his time was either spent being beaten or sleeping. From what he had heard from the banter between the guards, the Gerudo were planning to use him as leverage, as well as mentions of another prisoner. One make a remark, apparently a joke from her tone of voice, about trying to prevent some, "Attica-type shit going down."

Wearily, Link tried keeping himself awake and conscious, but sense of drowsiness set over him, making the events unfolding before him cloudy, as if viewed through a fog. A woman tied his hands together behind his back, and then two others held him upright on his knees, before starting to hit him with a rod. As the rod connected solidly with his belly, Link gasped. Feeling the empty sensation in his gut, the Hylian only had a moment noticed before he threw up over the floor again. Expecting another smart-ass remark from his torturer, the only reaction he got for regurgitating was a sudden intensification in the beating.

It felt like rods of red-hot iron were being laid upon his skin. The pain lit his flesh on fire, while his half-nakedness in the frigid desert environment caused every other patch of skin not bruised or blackened to feel cold, colder than he had ever felt. The result was an impression not unlike freezing and burning at the same time.

By the time the battering had ended, and the women released him, Link collapsed on the ground. After they slipped a bag over his head, then left, his shallow breaths from his mouth steamed up the inside of the bag, and began to warm his face. And then, as exhaustion overwhelmed him, he fell mercifully unconcious.

* * *

_Castle Town, 2002 BM, December 12th, 11:12 AM_

Admiral Nohansen scowled at the operation report in front of her, pasted onto the screen of her laptop computer. The words scrolled down on the screen:

_Operation: CATAPULT_

_Brian Mari-Jana Leland _  
_Commanding Officer _

_Anne Oboroceanu_  
_Information Research Specialist_

_December 11th, 2002_

_Summary:_

_This report is written to detail Operation: CATAPULT. It provides tables, compiled by sources at the Office of Hyrulian Intelligence (OHI), indicating the number of casualties inflicted and taken among Hyrulian military personnel serving in Operation: CATAPULT. _

_This report will be updated as events warrant. _

_Introduction:_  
_This report is written to detail Operation: CATAPULT. It provides tables, compiled by sources at the Office of Hyrulian Intelligence (OHI), indicating the number of casualties inflicted and taken among Hyrulian military personnel serving in Operation: CATAPULT. _

_A review of the composite data reveals the following._

_-All marines landed in their specified landing zone (LZ) as specified. _

_-The marines continued onwards to their primary target, the head of a local terrorist group named Ganondorf Dragmire . _

_-After engaging several members of local militia, GODDESS squads proceed onwards towards the package. _

_-Reaching the package's believed location, the location was revealed to be booby trapped._

_-Upon orders for exfiltration, GODDESS squads were ambushed by hostile forces_

_-Lieutenant Commander Link Avalon (Serial Number 01829-99157-LA) was captured by hostile forces_

_-Negotiations over the Lieutenant Commander, who has now been held for seven (7) days have produced no results._

_-Tracking of the Lieutenant Commander's Cybernetic Neural Interface (CNI) chip has produced a lead on his location._

_-OHI has been authorized to use all necessary force to retrieve Hylian assets from Gerudo hands_

_Table 1. Hostile Deaths Occurring During CATAPULT_

_Race/Ethnicity Number of Deaths_

_ Gerudo 48_

_Table 2. Friendly Casualties Occurring During CATAPULT_

_Race/Ethnicity Number of Casualties_

_ Hylian 1_

_End of Current Report_

Scowling once more at the screen as if it could change the (unfortunate) turn of events, Nohansen moved her gaze from the bright light of the laptop screen to the dark walnut construction of the table. Cupping her forehead with her interwoven hands, she exhaled deeply, then reached for the ever present mug of coffee in front of her. She rubbed at the bags under her eyes caused from pulling one all-nighter yesterday, after pulling all strings possible to determine Link's location. It would to be a long week, or month, or year, whatever, until they found him. Zelda took another draught.

* * *

_Unknown location, Unknown time frame_

Something woke him. Opening his eyes groggily in the dim light, he could see nothing. What he could hear however, was completely different. Loud noise (some people called it music), categorized as rock was blasting out from somewhere outside his cell. So that's what had woken him up.

"Rise and shine! It's almost one in the morning bitch!" A cheery voice yelled at him, as the locks on his door rattled.

"You gotta be kidding me," Link muttered.

The door came open with a loud metallic clang, and whoever was behind it pushed it open with a fully laden cart. In the shadowy pre dawn light, the boxy items loaded on the cart were hard to make out but Link guessed they were speakers from their shape. That, and that fact that those boxes were blasting sounds of men screaming and screeching guitars.

"I got your cultural music for you right here, just in case you got homesick." The woman grinned at him, her pearl-white teeth standing out slightly in the dark. "Some band like the Indigo-Go's or some shit like that."

"Yeah, well I'm not Terminian."

"You know, I never liked smart asses like you. Especially a Hylian smart ass." The Gerudo turned and delivered a sharp kick. Link winced, then kept his face in a grimace as a particularly loud section of whatever song the band was performing began to play.

"Mind turning it down a bit?"

"Turn it up? Yeah no problem." The woman reached down and twisted a dial. Link cringed as the blasting noise increased. "Alright, sleep tight now okay? We'll be seeing each other in another four hours, so I hope you enjoyed this little slice of home." She grinned at him again, except that it wasn't really a smile at all; more like a 'hope you fucking die in a deep dark hole with me watching you' smile. With a final kick, the Gerudo left, shutting the doors behind her.

Link tried to shut his eyes and block out the rock music. Slowly as his vision went dimmer and dimmer, a sudden crescendo in the music snapped him back into reality, his head jerking forward. 'I really hate that bitch,' he thought. The Hylian slumped against the wall and sighed again. It was going to be long morning.

* * *

Yep, I just made a reference to a real-life event in a fanfiction story. Sue me. :P Please read and review! I need more criticism guys. _ Oh do you think I should change the rating to M?


	6. A Winter Hellishland

_A/N: Hi guys! Sorry I haven't updated in while; finals at school and all. But I hope the word count on this one helps make that up. ) By the way, this is another flashback scene. Please read and review! :D_

* * *

_Peak Province, 2000 BM, 8:41 AM_

A coldness hung over the land. But then again, at twenty four thousand feet above sea level, it tended to be cold. Snow was everywhere, covering the land in a white freezing blanket. The highest mountain in the range towered over the others, casting a crooked shadow that blotted out the sun. On either side were high ridges that flanked it, each peak covered in snow. Everyday, the winter sun faded slowly away, leaving behind a breathtaking display of natural fireworks. Despite all the beauty, the Peak Province mountains were an unforgiving place, with subzero winds that could, and had, claimed lives with its harsh chill, or turn boiling water to sleet. The base of the mountains were similar, though it was dotted with greenery and wildlife bounding about despite the snow that was still in abundant supply. At the foot of the mountains was a massive sparkling lake, glistening in the sunlight that filtered through from the mountains. The reflection of the surrounding peaks was a perfect imitation, completely undisturbed. Tinkling in the sunlight, the highest peak was tinged pink, with its subordinates a lowly brown. A watcher might have wondered why there were no animals there to drink from the large pool. The answer was that, though the water looked like a liquid, it was frozen, with a thick foot of ice coating what water remained through the frigid winters of Northern Hyrule. Hell had frozen over.

* * *

Terminian Sergeant First Class Kafei "Bomber" Dotour had had better days. He sighed, breath whipping around him as he did so and then thought back to the beginning of the mission. First, there was an uneventful drop in sub-zero conditions. Then, they had to trek about ten miles in the freezing snow to get to one of the Peak Province mountains. Next, they had to climb a wall of ice to get actually to some base that _might_ have a downed ACS (Active Control System) satellite, with codes to everyone of Hyrule's anti-missile and ballistics systems. He had to hand it to the Gerudo though; they knew how to hide a base, especially in the opposite of where they normally would prefer, thanks to the temperature. Right now, he was crouching on a small ledge about half a meter wide with the mountain behind him and and a twenty thousand feet drop in front of him. Kafei was waiting for the ranking officer on this mission, a certain Hyrulian Captain Link Avalon. Avalon looked up while smoking his cigar as a Gerudo Sand Wasp helicopter took off from the top of the cliff. Maybe with the ACS data.

"Break's over, Bomber. Let's go." They circled around the ledge until Link found an apparently good spot to start climbing. "Stay here and spot me. Wait for my go," he ordered. The Captain retrieved a pair of ice picks and dug the first one deep into the snow. He then raised his left hand and repeated the action. "All right, the ice is good. Follow me."  
"Sir." Kafei pulled out his own set of picks, and started the fifteenth climb up the mountain. Fortunately, the ledge they had picked was only about fifty feet below the base, plus a short trek. After about ten minutes, Bomber was near the top when another Sand Wasp flew overhead as the rotor wash dislodged snow and ice. Caught unawares, Avalon was jarred from his left pick, before grabbing the right pick with both hands. Kafei held his breath until Link got it back under control. The rest of the climb was otherwise uneventful, until they reached the top. Once at the top of the ice, they could easily see the path to the base, about ten feet away from them...but that ten feet was an open drop above a nearly endless chasm. They would have to jump for it.

"Damn it," Dotour muttered.

"Good luck, Bomber. I'll see you on the far side," Link told him. He then backed off, sprinted, and jumped. He made it seem so easy, thought Bomber. He emulated Avalon; he backed up and began to run, his heels digging and pushing off the icy ground. However, his jump was too short, and he landed, chest first into the other side of the path with two feet beneath the ice. A burst of panic flooded through him. Trying to keep calm, he dug in with one of his ice picks.

"Hold on! Don't let go!" Avalon yelled. Kafei was showered with shards of ice as his pick started to slide down, so he let go of his other pick and pulled himself up. But the pick wasn't planted deep enough to support his muscular frame of one seventy pounds along with his fifty pound pack. Slowly, he was getting dragged down the slope, and ever closer to becoming a grease spot twenty thousand feet below-

-and Captain Link Avalon came hurtling down the slope. He extended a well needed hand, which Bomber reached up to accept. With a grunt, he pulled Bomber up and over the slope.

"Damn," Dotour muttered, dazedly. He was still shaking from his near-death experience, but he managed to pull out his M26 battle rifle smoothly. He quickly checked the gun out, pulled the bolt back to make sure it was clean, and slapped a magazine in. He yanked the charging lever back and chambered a new round, then looked through his holographic sight, checking that the red dot was centered.

"Alright. We're here."

"Got it, sir," Bomber replied. They continued to hike up the path until a large hanger came into view. Falling belly flat, the pair crawled ever closer to the base until a two man patrol came into view.

"Bomber, these idiots have no idea we're here. Let's take this nice and slow. You take the one on the left. On three. One...-"

* * *

Jam'da Ma'mada "patrolled" the base with one of her fellow guards. They were joking around and passing around a cigarette. They had specifically requested patrol duty because all they had to do was just walk around, and pretend to be watching the snow. Better this, than being one of the mechanics that had to figure out what was wrong with the snowmobiles. "Ха! Это все это все шутка! Зачем им Спецназ оперативники в течение нескольких охранников? Ha! This whole thing is a whole joke! Why do they need Fortress operatives for a couple of guards?"

"Делать вид, что они охрана некоторые ведущие вещь тайну, и не мусор! To pretend that their guarding top secret stuff, and not trash!" Jam'da's partner said laughing. Ma'mada was about to reply when all of a sudden, she felt something hot spray the side of his face. With a jolt, she realized that it was blood. She heard two distant coughs that sounded strangely like silenced rifle shots, and then everything went black.

* * *

"Nice work," Avalon told Bomber. As they ran around the dead bodies, Bomber picked up an AMG-01 and sighted it. It wasn't equipped with any red dot or holographic sights, but instead had the standard Gerudo leaf style iron sights. Link noticed the action and told him, "Be careful about picking up enemy weapons, Bomber. Any un-suppressed firearms will attract a lot of attention." The sergeant nodded, dropped the weapon and started moving again. As they walked farther along the main road, Kafei spotted two bodies ahead of them with his rifle scope.

"Tangos ahead. Same plan. On three. One...Two...Three." The duo fired two shots and were rewarded with both sentries falling to their knees. Once the main base started to come into view, Dotour could see what seemed to be a barracks and more hangers. His vision was obscured abruptly when a gust of wind blew, carrying with it a large blizzard.

"The storm's brewing up, sir," Kafei remarked. They moved even faster into the base, but just as they got "into" it, the storm came up in earnest.

"Damn...split up. I'll use the thermal scope and provide over-watch from this ridge. Use the cover of the storm to enter the base. You'll be a ghost in this blizzard, so the guards won't see you until you're very close. Good luck," the captain told him. Kafei started to dash around the base, until he saw his first guard standing outside a building. He crept closer to the guard until he was close enough to use his knife, and then the sentry turned around. As the sentinel tried to think of what a huge lump of white was doing right next to him, Dotour grabbed the woman, covered her mouth and plunged his knife into the woman's heart. He ripped off the guard's shemagh and stuffed it into the guard's mouth, then yanked his blade out of the woman's chest. Taking a moment to clean it off in the snow, he walked up to another guard and dispatched her in the same efficient way. As he sidled closer to Kill No. 3, the guard suddenly jerked erratically once and then fell down in a spray of blood.

"Heh," Link chuckled. "Alright, play time's over. I've tapped into their comms. Head southeast and plant your explosives at the fueling station. We may need to go to 'Plan B' if things go south."

"Got it, sir," Dotour told him. He crouched and got into the crawlspace beneath one of the closest barracks just a truck roared past.

"A truck is coming. Heads up, the truck just stopped. Four tangos just got out and are looking around. Hold up, they've only found a body," Link said over the COM. Kafei could hear rifle shots even as Avalon was talking. The rest of the trip to the fueling station was otherwise uneventful. Once reached the fuel tanks, he looked around. The tanks were large yellow cylinders that reminded him of an old-fashioned septic tank. "I'm picking up radio traffic about the satellite. Standby...got it. The satellite's in the far hangar. Race you there. Oscar Mike. Out."

"You got it, sir. Bet I'm there faster," Dotour replied. He started to run around the tank until his thermal scope picked up almost twenty hot bodies all around him...hostiles. He hid behind the tank, then waited for them to pass. Dotour ran around the hanger until he found Link.

"Took the scenic route, eh?" Avalon asked, "Let's go." They kicked the door open and immediately sweeped the building with their rifles. They walked down the brightly lit single hallway, which was lined with lockers, when they almost ran into a guard. "She's mine," Avalon told Dotour He ran, and when the guard turned, maybe hearing some infinitely small noise, Link grabbed the guard's head and threw it against one of the nearest lockers. Kafei couldn't tell if the loud crack that followed was from the guard's head or the locker. The duo walked even further into the hanger and saw their target: the partially disassembled ACS satellite. Dotour looked around the hanger. It was solid, with only two entrance points, the door from which they had just entered, and a large hangar door. "Go upstairs and look for the ACS module," the Captain told him.

"Yes, sir." While he tried to open up the satellite, Bomber ran up the stairs and found a small room with a computer. Next to the computer was the ACS module. Just as he picked it up, however, there was a loud clang.

"Bomber, I've been compromised. Keep a low profile, and hold your fire." Kafei exhaled a long and heartfelt expletive. He belly crawled out the door and saw Link with his hands up, silhouetted by the light coming in from the newly opened hanger door. And surrounding him were almost twenty Gerudos with weapons pointed.

"This is Major Nab'ooru! Come out with your hands up! To enemy infiltrators, we have captured one of your comrades! You have five seconds to comply!" yelled one of the Gerudo. She spoke passable Hyrulian, which was surprising. But Bomber didn't have time to admire this, 'Major Nab'ooru's' English.

"Bomber, go to Plan B," Avalon told him, even as the Gerudo major started to shout her countdown. Kafei understood instantly, and pulled out the detonator to the E5 high explosive he had planted earlier at the fueling station.

"Three!...Two!...One!...-"

"And...boom," Bomber muttered, pressing the detonator button. In his time with the marines, he had seen plenty of explosions, but this was beautiful. The petroleum blew like a fountain from hell, spewing fire and flames all over the runway, gouts alternating between flying into the air like fireworks, or spitting streams of hot death every which way. The hostiles turned around, presenting a huge target that Bomber just couldn't ignore. He raised his M26 and blew ugly sized chunks in anything that moved. Avalon ran behind the satellite, and pulled out his own rifle, a heavily customized M12 sniper rifle. "Sir, let's move! We can hug the wall, then use the Sand Wasps for cover!"

"Agreed!" Link yelled, "Head for that Sand Wasp! I'll cover you!" Bomber jumped down the stairs four at a time, and reached the bottom in about three seconds. He was a white blur as he ran for the closest fighter jet, dropping anyone he saw. Emptying his magazine, he dropped it and slapped another one in. Just as he reached the Gerudo helicopter, he saw a flash and blur of heat as a RPG headed straight for him. Even with him running as fast as he could away from it, the explosion cast out a wave of heat and pressure that nearly sent him tumbling. "To the east, Bomber! Let's go!" hollered Avalon above all the din and rifle fire.

It seemed like every Gerudo in the whole base was centering in on them, which was probably true. Once they made it to the end of the runway, they slid down the slope, and kept on running. Guards at the top of the hill were keeping fire on them, and Bomber had no problem returning the offense. He mowed four down with another volley of automatic fire, and Link took out the rest with precise one shot kills. "All right, let's go!" All of a sudden, snowmobiles roared down the hill, and began firing wildly. Avalon stood behind a cabin, and as a snowmobile thundered past, stuck out his arm, holding one of his ice picks. It dug deep into the driver's chest, and Link drew his silenced sidearm and fired two shots into the man in the back. Kafei did likewise, firing a quarter of his rifle magazine into the nearest snowmobile. The driver tumbled over the handlebars, and went right beneath the vehicle. Bomber heard a crunch, and saw a dark red smear on the ice. Ignoring it, he jumped into the seat, and started for the exfiltration point in the east.

Looking to his left, he saw Avalon pushing his snowmobile to full throttle, and Dotour did the same. They raced across the snow and ice, with enemy snowmobiles and helicopters pursuing. Keeping his eyes on the path in front of him, he reached into the drivers compartment and found a pleasant discovery, a AG-18 automatic pistol with enough ammunition for almost an hour of continuous fire. picked it up, and started firing at the closest snowmobile. Bomber hit the engine block multiple times, and then watched happily as the snowmobile transformed into a fireball, charred and twisted metal flying in every direction. Dimly, he could hear words over the COM, and then realized Avalon was talking to their helicopter pilot.

"GUARDIAN Actual, the primary exfiltration point is compromised! We're en route to the backup LZ using enemy transport! Meet us there! Over!"

"Guardian One, this is GUARDIAN Actual, roger that, out," the pilot responded.

"More tangos to the rear! Just outrun them! Go! Go!" Avalon yelled. Dotour couldn't see anything now, except his own snowmobile, as snow whipped into his face. They skittered over a frozen lake, and encountered even more foot mobiles and snowmobiles. Kafei fired his whole magazine in one extended burst, and awkwardly reloaded with a single hand.

"Guardian One, we're at bingo fuel. What's your status, over?" the voice broke over the COM, laced with static.

"GUARDIAN Actual, we're taking heavy fire but we're almost there! Standby!" Then to Bomber, Link yelled, "Pin the throttle! Keep going!" As they got off the lake, there was a massive forest, with a path clear down the center. And right in front of that path was a cliff, with a good thirty foot distance to the other side.

"Oh holy shit!" screamed Bomber, adrenaline still pumping. Eyes watering from the wind and cold, he pushed the throttle to full and flew down the mountain, careful to duck as tree branches appeared on either side of him. Racing down, he hit the jump going at about 150 kilometers an hour with his eyes closed. After a jarring impact, Kafei knew, he was alive. But before he had time to celebrate, he was under fire again, by foot mobiles behind a makeshift barricade of barrels and scrap wood, apparently supposed to road block him. 'Yeah right," thought Bomber. He kept straight on course. Apparently most of the Gerudo were sure that Dotour would have to swerve to avoid hitting the barricade, because Bomber was about two feet from the wood when the soldiers panicked. The snowmobile barreled through, making a clean gap in the obstruction. Debris, snow, blood, and body parts spattered all over the snowmobile.

"There's the chopper! Let's go!" Avalon exclaimed.

"Guardian One, we have you on visual. Get your ass on board! We're running on fumes here!" GUARDIAN Actual yelled impatiently.

"Okay, they got the ACS! We're outta here!" shouted the door gunner. Bomber stopped, jumped out of the now-wrecked snowmobile. He double-timed it into the helicopter, and sat down in the troop bay, and looked back at the base. Most was of it was on fire, despite the snow, and the blood of the dead and injured was clearly visible, as was the wreckage from all the snowmobiles, trucks, and blown up buildings. He looked over at Avalon, who smiled and give the "thumbs-up." Bomber returned the gesture. Mission successful.

* * *

_A/N: So, watcha guys think? Leave a review to let me know! (Ah, thinly veiled self-advertising. I love it)_


	7. Shock and Awe

A/N: Merry Christmas you all! Hope you stay safe over the holidays. And don't get too drunk over New Years if I don't get an update in over that time. )

* * *

_Hyrulian Section Five OHI Briefing Room, 2002 BM, 00:12 AM_

"Alright Goddesses, listen up. Gerudo have captured a military asset belonging to Section Five brass. We're here to get him back. The HVI (High-Value-Individual) will have designation callsign Hacksaw. Currently, if his CNI chip is working right, he is somewhere in here," Raven tapped a small looking house on the tac-screens, live feed currently being streamed from one of Hyrule's many spy satellites over Gerudo Valley. The other Goddesses listened with rapt attention.

"OHI wants a clean operation; the Gerudo have him in hell right now. We're walking him out of there. But we go in clean. No explosives, unless things go bad."

Saria Greenleaf raised an inquisitive hand.

"Yes Lieutenant?"

"Rules of engagement sir?"

"The Terminian Convention does not apply. Civilians are fair game while you're at it. Just try not to leave too much of a body count."

"Yes sir."

"Suit up Goddesses. We're dropped in at oh-two-hundred-hours. Good luck." Raven saluted them, and they returned the salute. "Dismissed."

* * *

Public Key: file /excised access Alpha/

From: OHI CODENAME: COALMINER

To: Admiral Zelda Nohansen, OHI Section Five, Serial Number: 10612-61268-ZN

Subject: Asset/Hostage Retrieval

Classification: RESTRICTED, TOP-SECRET, EYES-ONLY

/open file/

Ma'am,

The Goddess asset's CNI chip finally got tracked back; some eggheads think there's some sort of IF jammer in the area. OHI top brass has approved the use of all force necessary to retrieve military assets held by the Gerudo as per OHI regulations. Operation: Shock and Awe is a go. Goddess team allocation once more has been approved. Goddess team leader Link Avalon is considered a highly valuable asset. HVI callsign designated Hacksaw.

Operation drops at around 0200. Wish you best of luck ma'am. I had to bust my ass in a bunch of committees for this op. You know that Vice Admiral Eric Sandusky wanted to just carpet bomb the entire Gerudo block? I had to threaten him with the entire Section Five coming down hard on him with an asston of paperwork.

Good luck ma'am. Hope this all pulls through.

And if it doesn't and I have to go through this all again, ask Section if I can get a raise, will you?

/close file/

WARNING: FILE CONTENTS PURGED AS PER OHI REGULATIONS OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS. DELETING IN 3...2...1. FILES DELETED.

* * *

Public Key: file /excised access Omega/

From: Admiral Zelda Nohansen, OHI Section Five, Serial Number: 10612-61268-ZN

To: OHI CODENAME: COALMINER

Subject: Reply to: 'Asset/Hostage Retrieval'

Classification: RESTRICTED, TOP-SECRET, EYES-ONLY

/open file/

COALMINER,

Thanks for getting back after the council's debrief was encrypted with a Beta-Five classification then emailed to every single Section Five member in a timely manner.

However, if Operation: Shock and Awe doesn't produce any viable results, I will personally scrub all data of the Vice Admiral's Spec-Ops programs from OHI computers and your pay grade might just drop a couple grades. Coincidences do occur.

And ask OHI for your own damn pay raise.

/close file/

* * *

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 6:17 AM_

Petty Officer Second Class Marcus Ashei's voice grated over the radio, "We're going down, I repeat, we have Loftwing down!" The Loftwing transport spun in blind circles, its tail engine destroyed from an RPG, as it began to spiral downwards. Circles of smoke began to trail the tail rotor, and Raven winced as it fell below sight, an explosion sounding from beneath them. Looking to his left, he saw another fifteen helicopters following, banking, and evading incoming staccato small arms fire, punctuated with the occasion RPG shot.

"To all Goddess units, be advised, Goddess Five has gone down, Goddess Five is down," he barked over the radio. Racking a round into the chamber of his M55 rifle, Raven's own helicopter began to descend. As he clicked safeties off and conducted a weapon check, his crew did the same. This was Goddess Actual, with the three other helicopters behind them designated Goddess One, Two, and Three. The mission they were on should have been fast and simple, but they were caught up in a horrible landing zone, taking heavy fire. Then as air evac transports started to circle overhead as reconnaissance teams tried finding a suitable place to land, two had been hit from RPG fire, and had gone dark since. Despite the fact that that meant almost thirty crew were down there, they were being left alone in search for Hacksaw. Raven prayed that their superior military training and equipment would be enough to hold out until evac arrived.

Command came in over the COM, static washing over every other word, "Marines, we have a possible fix on Hacksaw in the capital city. Shield Squad is en route. Intel indicates that the Gerudo have a stolen Hyrulian nuclear warhead. Speed is critical, repeat, get in and out of there ASAP. Dozens of NEST teams have been deployed to the area. SAPPER units have taken out most of the air defenses but Gerudo ground forces still pose a serious threat.

Raven yelled to his squad, "This is it marines. We grab Avalon and get the hell out of here. Lock and load Marines." He motioned to Saria.

"Sir?"

"Green, I need you manning that Mark 25 machine gun for overwatch." Saria nodded and then made her way to the forward cabin, where the Mark 25 HMG (heavy machine gun) was mounted. It was a huge gun, firing 0.75 APR (Armor-Piercing-Rounds) rounds at 1000 rounds a minute, and could tear a man in half with a single round. Just for the hell of it, she pushed the firing studs, and with a deafening retort, the ground beneath her exploded upwards with dust clouds rising.

"Cool," she whispered to herself.

The pilots reported again, "In formation, approaching objective. Thirty seconds." As Saria watched, a Stallord strike helicopter flanked them, its pilot easily visible in the cockpit.

"Guardian, this is Sword. We'll take out the big targets, mop up any troublemakers with the Mark 25."

"All callsigns, command will be taking callsign Overlord. We're seeing enemy armor on the bottom grove west of the river. Take 'em out." As the helicopters steadily approached the Gerudo city, flat little vehicles with a pretty big gun mounted on them started to track the incoming Hyrulian aircraft. A whump, and then a shell whizzed by, hissing as if angered that it had missed its mark. Although it was a horrible shot, not anywhere near them, Greenleaf's pulse accelerated. A bead of sweat dripped down her brow. Men started running out of buildings and streams of small-arms fire came up, tracers and bullets lighting up the sky. Then two people with RPGs on a rooftop came running up. Saria raised the machine gun on its stand and sighted them, lining the iron post sight with the notches in the back of the gun. When they were lined up, she mashed the firing studs down. After seeing the bodies explode into meaty chunks, she released the triggers in self-satisfaction.

"Whoa-a-a, haha, hot damn!" Sword congratulated her.

"This is Guardian One, we are taking fire." Slowly as troop transport bobbed and weaved to avoid small arms fire, and, more importantly, RPG fire, the Loftwing crossed a raised road. "Light armor on that highway Greenleaf! Take that out." Four of the previously seen flat attack vehicles were trudging across the road, tracks raising small dust clouds. The Lieutenant sighted the lead vehicle and then poured a stream of hot lead into it. Shock jarred her arm numb as hundreds of shell casings pelleted the ground at her feet. As the first vehicle exploded in a shower of sparks, Greenleaf shifted her aim experimentally and swept the gun across the armored vehicle's fuel tank. The vehicle exploded, flipping over on its right side, and its compatriots never had a chance to escape. As the lead vehicle cut off their path, Saria destroyed them in the same efficient manner.

"Good kill!" Raven yelled. Saria smiled.

"RPGs on the rooftops!"

Saria looked out to her right, where the Loftwing was flying low enough to the roofs of the tall brick buildings, she could make out the expressions of individual Gerudo. Sure enough, two more Gerudo were standing on a balcony, weapons raised. One dropped to one knee and sighted her weapon on the intruding aircraft. A grenade launcher. Greenleaf immediately cut her down with a hail of depleted uranium rounds, four rounds hitting their mark. The rest pockmarked the area around her, spraying divots of adobe clay every which way. The other Gerudo ducked behind a doorway. Saria tried to take her out, but the bumpiness of the Loftwing shook her aim off and quickly moved past the Gerudo's hiding spot. 'Damn.'

"We are entering the city now Goddesses. Heads up for stronger resistance." As they rode farther in, Goddess One began to bank west, towards an empty plaza. Dozens of women on foot began running in, flooding the plaza. In a matter of seconds, bullets began streaming up towards the Loftwings. The situation got worse when more of those flat-looking soapbox vehicles started moving in too.

"Light armor, take it out, Green! More ground infantry, watch it."

"Ooh-rah. With pleasure." The Mark 25 spat out thousands of rounds, and Saria gladly distributed them to where they wanted to be: buried in a Gerudo body. That, or completely penetrate a Gerudo body, then shear away half of said Gerudo body. After demolishing all infantry down on the ground, she began focusing on the vehicles. Greenleaf repeated her previously successful strategy with the vehicles; rake them with bullets until their fuel ignited in one huge fireball. The heavy machine gun, despite its stanchion and specifically designed anti-recoil absorbing system, jarred Saria's shoulder numb. The Loftwing began to move again once she had cleared the courtyard of hostiles.

Once again, as the transport passed by raised buildings, Gerudos with RPGs began popping up and taking pot shots. Most of them were horrible shots, not anywhere near them, but still posed a threat. Just one could take out the Loftwing.

"We got RPGs on rooftops. Take 'em out."

Greenleaf swept the sights along the rooftops. Gerudo were everywhere, hiding underneath sacks of sandbags, brick walls, other bodies, anything. Saria almost laughed at the patheticness of the situation. Once more, the Mark 25 spat out its Hylian-guided fury. Bodies were ripped to shreds. Then the Goddess One pilots again, "Anti-air battery, rooftop."

The battery was a small semi-circle of sandbags with an old fashioned Goron .30 machine gun buried inside. How it had gotten there was beyond her, but it didn't matter. What did was how she was going to take it out.

So Saria did, dumping rounds into it to little avail, until she had apparently landed a bullet into the ammo cache, because the entire battery exploded. Bent metal and debris went flying, while the .30 machine gun chassis simply rocked once and then fell silent, flames licking hungrily at it.

Then, oddly, the air fell silent. As they passed over the rooftop that the battery had been mounted on, Saria saw dozens of foot mobiles running from the scene, away to the east. Where ever they were going, they wouldn't get far.

"Command this is Goddess One. Infantry is making a run for it. We are clear to land.

"Roger that. Okay... Shield, let's get those Yeti tanks to the front. Goddess, this is Overlord. Unload half your chalk and take the rest 2 klicks to the west. We need you to evac a recon team pinned down in the city."

"Roger Overlord. Goddess Actual out." The Loftwing began to descend slowly into the courtyard Green had just cleared, and Saria felt a slight thud as they touched down. Looking to her right, she saw her fellow Goddesses running out, rifles raised. Then the Yeti tanks began to roll in. One burnt out car body was lying the the middle of the road that the Yetis were traveling through. Saria wondered how they were going to get that car out of the way. And then the tank rolled just over the car without slowing down, all-terrain threads crushing and grinding up debris with a metallic screech. Four other tanks rolled in, trailed by a small group of marines following them as escort.

As soon as the tanks had gone off, rifle fire began coming off from the buildings facing down into the courtyard. Marines and Goddesses began diving for cover, while sniper teams began to pick off hostiles. Saria saw a slight muzzle flash from one of the windows followed by a marine rolling on the floor, groaning from a bullet wound. She decided to lend a hand and pushed the triggers, reducing the windowsill to rubble, leaving only twisted, blackened metal rebar still left. Then the Loftwing took off again.

"Good job Sar," Raven said. Saria looked over, as Raven banged the door twice of the bulkhead inside the gunner compartment to get her attention. He smiled and tossed her a rare thumbs-up sign. She returned the gesture.

"Hoo-ah."

* * *

A/N: How did you guys like the censored e-mails? Good/bad? Leave a review! :D


	8. Easy as Birds Flying

_Unknown location, 2001 BM, 1:12 AM_

* * *

The constant _whir whir whirs_ of the helicopter rotors were loud, but that was good. It helped keep Link awake and alert. The contours of the troop transport seats didn't really fit the curve of his back, along with the thick parachute. He thought back to his first jump, as a child, and smiled. Life had been so different then, but now, when the adrenaline pumped through his system, he wouldn't have it any other way. Even the forty-five minute session of just sitting in a room, breathing pure oxygen to flush out all nitrogen from his bloodstream had been worth it.

The mission briefing had two of their squad storming the building from the roof access, while the others cut off all escape routes outside. They would eventually push up, and meet up at the middle floors. From there, a beacon would be placed to alert all Hyrulian military forces in the area that a HVT (High-Value-Target) had been captured, and to pick it up. Quick, easy, and simple.

The heavy C-12 pack attached to the front of his chest jutted up slightly under his chin, where his rushed packing hadn't compressed his survival gear all the way down to the bottom of the pack. Slipping his left hand under the pack, he held on with his right hand to the series of plastic loops attached to the cabin of the Loftwing aircraft. He patted his chest to make sure none of his loaded rifle magazines had been jostled during the flight into Gerudo territory; on the way, they had had to bank sharply to avoid anti-aircraft fire. Now, Avalon was to take Guardian Squad and perform a HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) jump to avoid any Gerudo anti-aircraft or anti-ballistics systems that might register his squad as an incoming missile. They were literally flying under the radar.

Link moved his hand up, making sure that the Scotch tape he had placed on the rings of his HE-DP grenades hadn't slipped. He had learned the hard way that grenade pins could easily get snagged on a magazine feeder, or a belt loop here, or on one of the many nooks and crevices on his suit. After confirming that they were indeed still taped down, he sat back and relaxed into his chair. Looking forward, he gazed at Saria, Guardian Two, who stared back right at him, silver faceplate impossible to read. To the left, the rest of his squad sat, jostled up and down in their seats from the heavy turbulence in the crowded airspace.

"Guardian, we are two minutes out from target building, repeat, two minutes out."

Link performed a manual weapons check, then yanked the sling strap on his rifle down, putting the rifle tight against his pack. At terminal velocity, any loose object that might buffet up and clip his jaw could result at best, a nasty bruise, and at worst, a concussion. Then he reached down to his right hip, making sure his sidearm was secure in its hard case holster. Pulling the straps tight, he then motioned to Saria, making a_ turn around_ gesture as the rest of his squad did the same. She complied, and Link checked to make sure all parachute straps were tight on her. He pulled the harness straps twice to make sure they were taut, then the straps across her midriff. Slapping her helmet, he gave her the thumbs up signal. Saria quickly returned the favor, followed by a terse, "You're clean."

Avalon nodded, then spoke into the COM, "Guardian, are we set?"

The rest of his squad stared back into his face, and as one, gave a nearly imperceptible nod.

"Yes, sir. Good to go."

Speaking to their pilots now, Link said, "Guardian Actual, we are clear. Set to begin HALO jump descent, over."

"Roger that Guardian One. Clear to jump in one."

Link walked to the back of the aircraft, and studied the red klaxon light that threw a harsh red on everything inside the cabin. Avalon prepared to be the first one down; he was a firm believer that a leader should lead by example. Tightening the straps on his oxygen mask, he checked to make sure the connected oxygen bottle was still working by giving it a light squeeze. Good to go.

The numbers in his head slowly clicked downwards in a countdown. Avalon started to go through a mental checklist.

Ten...nine...eight...

'Keep breathing. Never forget to keep moving.'

Seven.

'Confusion will be normal. Remember Operation: Tundra, when you tumbled uncontrollably. Jumps will be dark.'

Six.

'Keep breathing. Oxygen levels will be low at this altitude.'

Five.

'If someone falls, remember the time spent with Para-jumping and Rescue squads. Attach their oxygen first.'

Four.

'Keep calm.'

Three.

'Calm."

Two.

One.

Zero.

The light turned green, the bay door opened, and the wind rushed up to greet him. The cold sliced at his face, howling, like it was trying to pull him down into the dark abyss beneath him. A flood of nostalgia ran through him, and he smiled, despite himself. Looking back, he saw his whole squad standing and waiting. Steeling his wits, he willed his legs to push off, and he flew into the early morning sky.

Slowly, Link extended his arms and legs. Feeling the gales rip at his limbs, he slowly angled himself toward the highlighted green beacon in his HUD. He knew that, despite the sublime darkness, his squad could still see his beacon in their HUD, so he could change course without fearing that they might lose him.

Suddenly, a red light began to flash on the inside of his HUD. That signal meant that one of his squad members was having a medical emergency. Switching his gaze from the ground beneath him to the upper right corner of his helmet, he saw that Guardian Two was in trouble. Saria. Turning on his night vision, everything glowed a sickly green, but he could more easily discern precise things that might threaten him while he tried to save her. It was a rule of first responders: _always check if the scene is safe_. Well, it was as safe as it could be in an officially declared war zone; no puffs of exploding flak rounds, missiles or other unpleasant items, so Link extended his legs and arms outwards even further, letting the drag slow him down in an effort to reach Guardian Two.

The person on top of him reached him quickly, and he flipped her around. His HUD labeled her as Saria, so he quickly looked her over. Her eyes were open, widened, but she wasn't moving. The cause was easy to see. Her oxygen mask had been detached. The oxygen mask that Link had donned for the past hour or so was standard issue, but Saria had always been more petite. More than likely, it had slipped off slightly during the jump, and the flurry below her had ripped it off completely, leaving it uselessly dangling above her, attached to her oxygen bottle, but out of reach.

Just one breath of oxygen depleted air at this altitude could be enough to send her into extreme hypoxia, a medical condition in which the body is deprived of an adequate oxygen supply, eventually leading to a person becoming unconscious, like Saria right then. Saria's breathing was irregular, an extremely quick in-out pattern that repeated all too quickly. That would be hyperventilation, caused by hypoxia. As her body began to lose oxygen, it would try to get that oxygen by any means possible, so she would gasp and suck in all possible oxygen. And as she gasped, she would suck in more oxygen thin air, causing her body to lose more oxygen as a result. It was a vicious cycle that could, and would kill Guardian Two if he didn't do anything, and _fast_.

Link grabbed the floating oxygen mask and attached it to Saria's face. He pulled the straps as tight as he could, then pinched the mask around her nose and mouth. Hugging her body tightly to his with his left hand, he readied his right hand around the parachute cord.

"Guardian squad, this is Guardian One. Guardian Two is down, oxygen depletion. She'll be back in a couple minutes, but until we hit the ground, she'll be dark."

A series of confirmations was fed back to him, and he studied his altimeter. Link calculated when he had to pull the cord. By traveling about fifty four meters a second, a rough calculation he spun up by computing wind drag and gravity, he would hit ground in two hundred seconds from when he jumped, from eleven thousand meters in the air. Opening should normally occur at roughly one thousand meters above the ground, so he subtracted twenty seconds. Taking an estimate, he had been in the air for about one ninety. He should've pulled the cords _ten seconds ago._

Link's breath caught in his throat. Avalon would need two hands to pull the cords though, so he unbuckled his pack, cursing as his fingers fumbled with the awkward push-pull release system. If he let Saria go and activated his own parachute, the sudden deceleration would send him fluttering up, while she plummeted downwards, away from him, like a rock. Loosening his straps to the maximum setting, he hooked it through Saria's own pack and waist then reclipped it.

Link yanked the cords downwards. Almost immediately, he felt the sudden _ripping_ sound as the nylon parachute unfurled explosively from his back. His legs and arms felt sore from the constant battering of the whirlwinds and his shoulders felt like they were going to rip off their sockets from the sudden deceleration. Along with the sudden slowing effect from the parachute, Link's and Saria's bodies were jerked from a freefalling position parallel to the ground to a somewhat gentler vertical feet first fall. Despite the fact that the nylon cords dug into his shoulders painfully, he grimaced and willed the pain away. There were larger problems ahead of him. Namely, the ground.

Slowly, the earth beneath his feet, which had looked like a miniscule ant hill from the Loftwing, now looked huge and was growing faster and faster. As the target building came into view, Link changed his trajectory so he would land on the roof. He couldn't breathe; he was coming in too fast. He had pulled the parachute too late...

Then the building came rushing up to meet him and his dangling feet hit the building. The first thing that he noticed was the pain in his lower legs. Everything hurt, and his vision was bordered with black all around the edges. His shins burned, like someone had taken his legs and scrunched them up into a space smaller than what was supposed to be physically possible. From personal experience, he had fractured one, if not both shins. But he was not the top priority. His squad, his teammates, were. Pulling his gloves off, Avalon reached for Saria's neck.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt a slight pulse, a steadily rising tempo. She was alive then. But safe was not exactly a word Link could use in this circumstance. They had landed on top their target building full of tangos, not exactly able to pull of a lightning fast raid in search of a HVT. _Shit. _Unstrapping Saria from his pack, he pulled his rifle out from the front of his rucksack. The single entrance into the rest of the building from the top of the roof was directly ahead of him, a small door in a little smoke-house looking shed. From there, a staircase led downwards to the rest of the thirty floors.

As Link was pondering whether or not to crawl to the staircase and try to contact his squad, the door was suddenly flung open, and two puzzled looking Gerudos walked outwards, weapons in hand. Link tensed but they didn't seem to notice him; they had probably heard the sound of him falling to the ceiling and came out to investigate. He thanked whatever goddess was watching over him right then for the darkness. He, however, could see them fine thanks to the eggheads who had developed night vision back in Hyrule.

Raising his silenced rifle, he sighted the closest of the two and pulled the trigger. A trio of rounds caught her in her shoulder and she stumbled, but didn't drop. Avalon cursed; shooting from the ground forward threw his aim off. As the two women jerked up in surprise and looked around, Link fired another burst. This time, his aim was better and one woman fell hard, half of her face shorn off from the 6.8mm rounds. Switching his aim, he targeted the next women, then dropped her as well in the same, efficient manner as before.

"Guardian Squad, this is Guardian Lead. Guardian Two and I are pinned on top of the target building. Guardian Two is down, and I am immobile."

"Roger that, Guardian One, this is Guardian Three, we read you. We're coming up now."

"Goddess speed, Guardian Squad. Good luck."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the late update. Happy New Years, and wish you all a good 2013! :D


	9. Silent

A/N: Hey everyone. I've been away for a while, and I apologize for that. School has been really busy lately; there has been a bunch of projects and homework. In addition, family scheduling issues meant that I've had to juggle a lot of stuff for home.

Just because life wants to hinder you from everything you ever want to do as much as possible, a bad case of writer's block really just hit me and dragged me out from my creative zone. I really did NOT know what and where I was going to go with this chapter. So I improvised as much as I could. I apologize if this isn't up to par, but thanks anyway for reading. God bless you all!

* * *

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 5:12 PM_

Link collapsed as a Gerudo swept his feet out from under him, falling to the packed ground on his shins. He winced in pain as small bits of gravel bit into the skin on his knees. Looking to his left, another Hylian was dragged into the room through a small entry door. The man was forced onto a kneeling position in the same fashion as Link.

The Hylian studied the person opposite him. The newcomer's shirt was tattered and ripped; red blotches were easily visible through the thin fabric. His face was tanned, though his time spent in apparent captivity had probably rendered his skin several shades lighter. As he twisted slightly to gain a more comfortable position, Avalon caught a glimpse of his upper bicep. It was tattooed with the traditional motto, "Officium patriae ante sui," or "Duty to country before self." Traditional _Navy_ motto.

There had always been a special relationship between the Navy corps and the Marine corps. A special relationship as in one of a "you-son-uva-bitch" attitude between the two Hyrule military branches. Although technically the Marine Corps was a component of the Hyrule Department of Navy Corps, it was a separate branch and their operators preferred to work alone.

"Great. Another jarhead," said the battered Navy soldier, tone slightly curious, but laden with a cold menace nonetheless. Avalon just smiled, though it never reached his eyes.

'Just what we needed.'

* * *

_Valley Incorporated Banking Headquarters, 2002 BM, 5:16 PM_

"Let's go."

Bomber crept up, Saria close behind him. The night sky was dark, with barely a trace of the moon to illuminate the surrounding area.

In the name of reconnaissance, they were to get to the roof of a building, a tall skyscraper with a perfect view over Link's holding cell. And, in case anything went south, they were authorized to take all deadly force necessary to ensure Commander Avalon's survival. To this end, each of them carried a R90-APSR2 slung over their right shoulder, as well as several magazines of 8.6x70mm custom tooled rimless centerfire cartridges, designed specially for long range combat. Even at twenty five thousand meters, it could reach out and touch someone with deadly, pinpoint accuracy.

The only hitch in this plan was the fact that the building was filled with a rather large amount of Gerudo security teams, thanks to the building for being an operations center for a rather large banking corporation in Gerudo desert. The small two man Hyrulian team, however, had the advantage of surprise. That, and the several hundred thousand dollars of equipment they carried.

Two guards stood in front of the entrance. One held a rifle, but held it carelessly in hand as she conversed with a fellow guard.

"You ready?"

The terse reply came. "Yeah."

Saria burst out of cover, Bomber in tow. The shorter guard, the one not holding a gun, jerked up in surprise. Then Saria grabbed her, hooking an arm around the back of her head, pulling her inwards. A quick left jab into the Gerudo's nose sent her head snapping backwards, before Saria swept her right arm in a chopping motion against her neck while her left hand held the guard's head. There was a _crick_ sound, and the guard fell to the ground, limbs splayed awkwardly.

As she did so, Bomber dealt with the second guard. As the Gerudo tried to lift her rifle, the strap caught against one of the buckles on her uniform. While she was trying to untangle the firearm, Bomber tackled her. His arms circled around her legs, then his forward momentum sent the woman sprawling. Blinking twice to remove the disorientation, the Gerudo tried to lift him up with herself in a desperate bid to regain her footing, when a strange sound, like a low snap of lightening, rang out for a split second and died. The guard's head erupted in a bright sizzle of lead, red blood splattering Bomber's torso.

"Fuck," he muttered. He cast a glance to his right, where Saria was holding her silenced pistol in her extended arm.

"You're welcome," she said, brushing past him.

"That bullet wasn't necessary you know," he told her.

"Your point?" She winked at him.

He didn't reply; instead he reached for combat knife strapped at his hip. Drawing it, he cut a small circle in the glass frame surrounding the door. It fell inward silently, hitting the carpet with a soft_ thud_. Bomber reached his hand through, careful not to cut his wrist on the sharp glass edges, and opened the door from the inside. Saria cast a questioning glance at the open door as he removed his arm from the hole.

"Well, ladies first," he smirked.

"Wow, I feel _sooo_ special." She shouldered the door inside, her pistol brought to bear. Kafei followed, sweeping his submachine gun from left to right. They were on the first floor, and looking up, he saw dozens of balconies stacked atop each other, one for each floor. Bomber felt a moment of being dwarfed, then pushed the thought out of his head. Focus on the mission.

"Let's move. Take the staircase. You take point," said Saria. There was no more hint of a joke in her voice, no more sarcasm. She was now all fully buisness.

"Roger that." He took the stairs three at a time, making sure his footsteps were quiet. Even though it was night now, and the workers here had all gone home, one ringing foot step and guards would be swarming all over this place. A guard was leaning on a balcony, looking down at the floor beneath. Fortunately, she seemed bored, and the black of Bomber's armor would meld with the dark, dense shadows.

He approached, crab walking sideways. Slowly, one foot at a time. Everything, every slight noise seemed amplified. The scuff of his boot on the carpeted ground, the beating of his heart, his breath ringing in his own ears. As he walked, he plucked his knife from his belt, willing his fingers to move silently. Finally, when he was three feet behind her, he reversed the grip on his knife in the "icepick" position; point down. By some infinitely small noise, or perhaps alerted by whatever six sense that told her something was wrong, the Gerudo began to turn to her right in an inquisitive gesture.

Bomber leapt forward. His left arm circled her head, hand covering her mouth. As she spasmed in his arms, his right hand plunged downwards. The knife penetrated her cloth uniform easily, and the blade lodged in her abdomen. Letting her down gently, he ripped of the belly section of her shirt, cursing it caused a loud _riiiip_. He removed the knife and stuffed the fabric into her open mouth. Although most would have just left the Gerudo for dead at that point, Dotour was a professional. He knew that it took at least a minute for a person to bleed out from a knife wound, unlike what was normally depicted in those Hyrulewood films.

The woman jerked around wildly. Her right arm smacked against Bomber's outer thigh, but he grimly held her arm down with his hand, ignoring the blood on his forearms. In a matter of seconds, the spasms died in strength. Dotour reached down and clenched his fingers around the knife handle. Sliding the knife out cleanly, Bomber idly noticed that the blade glimmered slightly, a dark crimson tinge.

"Hallway clear," he said."

Saria ran up with the barrel of her pistol snapping from doorway to doorway. Scanning for any potential targets, she put her pistol down, apparently satisfied. "Let's keep moving."

Bomber nodded.

* * *

_Valley Incorporated Banking Headquarters, 2002 BM, 9:36 AM_

"Hey, mark that guy. Two o'clock. Near the water tower."

A slight pause.

"Yeah, I see 'er. Can you get a clear shot? She's behind a wall or something."

"Hold...yeah, I can take the shot." Another pause. Then a suppressed rifle shot, the slight tinkle of brass hitting the concrete floor. "Tango down. Got her."

Dotour nodded appreciatively. "Nice shot."

The duo had been holed up in the building for nearly two days now. It got pretty monotonous, just lying prone with a rifle, sighting potential targets, shooting, repeat process. Everything, even the vacuum sealed food they had packed with them as part of their standard kits (MREs, or Meal Ready to Eat), started to taste the same.

"Element Zulu, this is Raven. Request sit-rep (situation report), over."

"Same situation over on this end Commander. Bored as hell."

"In fifteen minutes, that's all going to change."

Kafei looked over at Saria. She glanced back at him, questioning, and he tapped his headset twice with his forefinger and middle finger, the signal for 'important message.' Averaging out at thirty degrees celsius, the desert's temperatures could get rather hot during the day. Because of this, her own headset was set down for personal comfort.

"Planning something Commander? I'm hurt. You didn't even call me in on this one."

Raven chuckled, "Very funny smartass. We have strike teams moving in on Loftwings. We're unloading roughly half a click from the target building. I want you and the rest of Element Zulu pinpointing any potential targets; anti-aircraft guns, RPG wielding Gerudo, anything."

"You got it Commander."

"Hold on. We're...the Gerudo are broadcasting using their own signal. Wait one."

* * *

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 9:37 AM_

Link grimaced as the woman to his right jabbed the barrel of her pistol further into his temple.

"Say cheese," she whispered as the large studio camera was trained on him. The Gerudo operating it gave the thumbs up, and a small button light on the camera's chassis blinked red.

"Good people of Hyrule! Lend me your ears," the Gerudo said, smiling. Her voice was tinged with a slight accent, voice enunciating the 'u's awkwardly. "I'm going to guess, that, by now, your little wind up toy soldier here has been missing. If, in twenty four hours, hostilities at the Gerudo-Hyrulian border are not ceased, poor little Lieutenant Commander Link Avalon here gets the privilege of some extreme Gerudo...hospitality." The slight pause gave no doubt as to her true intentions.

Then, her voice took a hard, harsh turn. "Now, some of you motherfuckers think that we probably won't shoot this bitch by that time right? That, oh, the Gerudo, those whores don't have the power to contend with almighty Hyrule military?" She laughed, a maniacal sound that escaped her fluttering lips. The woman gestured, and two other Gerudo brought in the Navy personnel that Link had previously seen. The man cursed, trying to rise up, but the women forced him down onto his knees. She pointed the gun at the Navy man's head.

'Oh shit.' Link's thoughts were moving a mile a minute. 'She won't pull the trigger. She better not. Oh Goddesses, don't let her pull the trigger. Oh shit. Oh shit.'

"Come on you bitch! Pull the trigger! I dare you!"

The Gerudo ignored him, continuing, "The Hyrulians brought this upon themselves. Now, they will die for their transgressions. Take this as a token of our sincerity, to you."

She pulled the trigger.

* * *

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Read and review please.


	10. Death from Above

_Above Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 9:38 AM_

"Command, this is Shield Actual. Shield element on route to target location. We have a touchdown ETA of fifteen minutes," Raven said.

Tetra Harkinian's voice came in from the COM, crackling slightly. "Rainbow element on ground moving to assist pinned down Hacksaw element trapped in the city, over."

"This is the command element, callsign Spectre. Roger Shield, you are clear to engage all hostiles you encounter."

"Understood Spectre. Shield out."

"Godspeed Shield."

Raven held on to the plastic strips that served as a safety grip on his Loftwing. With all the turbulence, or perhaps it was a result of banking to avoid anti-aircraft fire, he felt that it was wise. The commander sighed, and ran his free hand's fingers through his unruly hair. Although he would never admit it, both he and his squad knew that Link's chances of survival were dwindling. With the shock and awe tactic failing early, the Gerudo holding him were more likely to be suicidal and willing to be martyred to take out even one Hylian down with them.

Still, everything wasn't all bad. Eggheads at the Air Force base had been able to use their eyes-in-the-sky, colloquial slang for Air Force satellites, to positively ID Link's FOF (Friend Or Foe) tags. The risk of collateral damage in tight, urban CQB (Close Quarters Battle) situations would be lowered substantially especially since FOF identifications were able to be uploaded into Hyrule's battle net. The second piece of good news was that two Goddess operators had managed to infiltrate the high rise building complex overlooking Avalon's building location.

When Raven had heard that one of those Goddesses was Saria, Raven almost smiled a bit. Greenleaf was one of the long distance better shots with the R90-APSR2 weapon systems. When the commander had heard that the other Goddess sniper to provide covering fire during the raid was Bomber, everyone else in the TAC OPs room could've sworn his face paled at least a couple shades. Kafei "Bomber" Dotour. Raven could still remember Bomber trying to take down a meter wide target from five hundred meters. Five shots, two trainers wounded, and twenty thousand rupees worth of damage later, Kafei had managed to actually hit the target once. Raven shuddered; he still had nightmares occasionally from that training session going to hell. The commander offered a quick prayer to Hylia, then hoped that Kafei had managed to improve his sharpshooting. Knowing the Sergeant, it was unlikely.

* * *

___Valley Incorporated Banking Headquarters_, 2002 BM, 9:38 AM

Dozens of shells littered the floor as Saria and Bomber popped off several shots off in quick succession.

'Two more...by..." Kafei's voice trailed off, "...seven hundred meters out near the wall. By that burned out car."

"Gotcha. Are they behind that burned out red car?"

Kafei nodded, uttering a quick 'mhm.'

"Got it. Mark the left one. I got the one on the right. On my mark. Three..."

"Two," Bomber whispered under his breath, in sync with Saria. "One..."

Bomber exhaled, and held his breath.

"Mark!"

Kafei pulled his finger back in a smooth, fluid motion. The rocoil pushed the paddled rifle stock back into his shoulder, but Kafei expertly handled it, learning in slightly toward the rifle. In theory, a small 6.8mm cone made of soft lead should not be able to penetrate the frame of a car and still be able to kill man. Or a woman in this case.

In reality, the full metal jacketed, brass covered lead bullet carry several thousand pounds of kinetic energy behind it punched easily through the car before and shore through each woman. The resulting red splatter hit the car; a sudden spray of intestines, blood, and gore from being nearly shorn in half gave the old rundown car an interesting new paint job.

"Tangos down."

"Nice shooting," Kafei offered. Then, "You heard that command's dropping that rescue attempt in twenty minutes?"

"Yep," Saria offered. "Hope they don't get shot down too."

"Element Zulu, this is Shield Actual. Shield element will hit ground in five minutes, I repeat ETA coming in five minutes. We need intel on landing zone, please advise."

"Gotcha Actual. Zulu element has neutralized several hostile foot mobiles wielding RPGs. Multiple anti-aircraft guns are stationed throughout the city. Neutralize those, and you boys have a clear entrance," Saria told them.

"Roger that Zulu. Scrambling our stealth birds now. Mark your location; standard bombing patterns might cut a little close."

"Copy Shield Actual. Zulu out."

* * *

_Hyrule Military Base Delta, 2002 BM, 9:30 AM_

"Uhm, Lieutenant Major...Groose Baado, is that correct?"

"Yes, sir," Groose replied. He and the rest of his airborne squad had lounged around idly for the past couple of days. No missions, no action, nothing. No need for spec ops pilots out for a little torch and burn either. Now it seemed like things were starting to look up again, no matter that it was barely 10 PM at night.

"Command's ordering a hot drop of spec ops team on the ground in five."

Groose snorted. "What, you guys need flying bus pilots?" He had always had strong opinions of those high and mighty "prima donna" spec ops teams viewing pilots and their birds as just a means from getting from point A to point B. If anymore of that sentiment got up to command, Loftwing pilots might as well start becoming chauffeurs for the generals. On the _ground_. That "action" seemed a lot more boring suddenly.

"No, Lieutenant, not this time. Anti-aircraft turrets are stationed throughout the city. HIGHCOM is ordering the scrambling of Poe stealth bombers in response to these threats. No man is getting left behind now, not with Hacksaw still on ground."

"No way," Groose murmured.

Poes were an extremely secretive stealth bomber. All black, angled stealth was ahead of its time. The flying wing style aircraft, blending a high aerodynamic design and extremely high payload capacity allowed it to have an effective range of about seven thousand nautical miles. Optimized for a combat speed of Mach one, capable of carrying eighty JDAMs (Joint-Directed-Attack-Munitions), and numerous AAM (Air-to-Air-Missiles) in case the Gerudo got any funny ideas and took their own birds to the air.

Dozens of complicated electronics were "woven" in throughout the plane's fuselage including an AP/ANQ-42 low probability of intercept radar avoidance systems. But the main design was the engines. By burying the engines deep into the fuselage, it concealed the engine fans, and also served to eliminate much of the visible exhaust trail. Rumor had it that the Poes had been deployed on numerous international overseas incidents, but there had never been any proof.

"I'm on it commander," Groose saluted.

* * *

_Near Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 9:41 AM_

Groose breathed in deeply, savoring the scent of the stale, filtered air. To many rookie pilots it would be a curse. Sitting down for hours, cramped and crammed into a tiny cockpit and tapping buttons all day while breathing bad air. But to the Lieutenant Major pilot though, everything about the experience was sensational.

"Knife Actual to Knife One. Approaching the Valley now. Be advised, we have a friendly Loftwing on descent. Try not to blow that out of the sky," Groose told the other Poe pilot.

"Roger Knife Actual. Could you mark that bird?" came the reply from over the COM.

Groose paused for a second, then, "Done. We also have two operatives with Element Zulu inside the building marked with a green, repeat, _green_ diamond. Hostiles will be marked with red diamonds. Avoid friendlies at all costs," he added as a joke. He knew that the other pilots inside the other Poe would be just as experienced as he was.

The lead pilot of Knife One laughed. "Don't worry your pretty little self Lieutenant. This ain't my first rodeo."

Groose's copilot, Cawlin, yelled an "Ooh-rah!" over the COM.

"Hey, Cawlin?"

"Yeah?"

"If you wanted to be a marine, I think you picked the wrong outfit. And the wrong bird."

"Geez, thanks boss," came the sarcastic retort.

Groose smirked, though it was hard to tell with the mask surrounding his face. "No problem."

Then Raven cut in over the COM, killing their fun. "Hey, assholes! Stay frosty. Can the chatter."

Groose, hardly surprised that the (in)famous commander was butting in on Air Force COM channels just to yell at someone, reached up behind him. Snapping his fingers to get his copilot's attention, he held up all five of his fingers, then folded two over. 5-3. A signal to switch channels to avoid the eavesdropping commander. He waited a few seconds for Cawlin to switch channels to 5.3, then:

"Is he gone?"

"Nice try buddy," the semi amused drawl came back.

"Damn it."

The rest of the trip was uneventful, until they reached Gerudo Fortress.

"Light 'em up boys and girls, we're going in hot."

COM chatter immediately spiked as the four pilots began to decimate the Gerudo defenses.

"On the right, on the right!"

"Tangos moving west."

"Foot mobiles coming up that roof."

Everywhere Groose looked, his helmet marked dozens of red diamonds. Hostiles. He hit the firing studs for the four inset .50 caliber machine guns. Thousands of bullets peeled towards their targets, as thousands of bullet shells drummed against their holding drum. The normally deafening report of the guns was merely a buzz from inside of the cockpit. Then he released the firing studs. No more diamonds remained.

Then the Poes were far ahead, searching for any serious threat that might pose a danger for the fatter, slower Loftwings.

Then, out of the blue, Cawlin cried, "We have SAMs moving fast on us!"

SAMs were Surface-to-Air-Missiles, heat seeking and each carrying a five hundred pound warhead. Each one could deal some serious damage if they weren't dealt with, and fast.

"What was their source?"

"If the sensors aren't just reading wash, about four clicks north. _Inside_ the city."

"Mark that. I'll JDAM the entire launch site. Focus on dodging those missiles."

"Roger that."

Groose looked down from the horizon to the radar screens. Two blinking X's were following the glowing green dot that represented his plane, as well as a yellow dot for the friendly Poe next to him.

"Two clicks from that launch site Groose!"

"Gotcha Cawlin."

The missiles were approaching fast. Extremely fast. Faster than any Gerudo warhead he had even seen before.

"Never seen Gerudo missiles that fast," Groose whined, though he wasn't sure who too.

Cawlin replied, "Don't think it _is_ Gerudo. The exhaust patterns match those from a Hyrulian designed AAM-42. Most likely black marketed stolen contraband."

"Shit. Can you pop smoke on them?"

"Yeah," said Cawlin tersely.

To the other Poe's pilots, he told them," Knife One, this is Knife Actual. Popping flares on those missiles on my mark. Split up to avoid the explosion, but don't peel too far."

There was no reply, but the other pilots must have gotten his message because they banked sharply to the right, then cut altitude by a good four hundred feet. Outside of a missile's blast radius.

"Five, four, three," Groose yelled over the COM.

"One click to the SAM launch site," his pilot yelled back at him.

"Two. One. MARK!" Groose continued his countdown.

Flares, dozens of tiny bright red sparks popped to life, released from the belly of the Poe. The wind, blowing fast, sent the flares tumbling backwards. The first couple pinged off the missile's fuselage, but the sheer multitude of them confused the warhead's sensors. This, coupled with the already minimum heat produced from the Poe, compounded the missile's problems.

With a bright, magnesium-brilliant flash, one of the stolen Hyrulian missiles exploded, tiny fragments of shrapnel mushrooming.

"That's one," Groose remarked. "Now can you get the other one?"

"Huh, funny. Seems like two to me," Cawlin said confidently, releasing the rest of the flares. Again, like with the first missile, the first sparks of red flares hit the warhead and then blew right off. But then, the main body of the flares hit the warhead in full force; a cloud of six inch magnesium infrared-visible flares buzzing like hornets. That AAM-42 didn't stand a chance in hell. The befuddled SAM detonated safely behind them, a soft "boom" marking its passing. Looking to his right, Groose saw the fellow Poe emulate the same moves he had just employed.

But there was no time to relax, even as the other Poe fell back into formation.

"We're passing over that missile launch spot in ten seconds Groose," his copilot urgently reminded him. They wouldn't have time for another pass at the launch site before Raven and his Loftwing landed. Or were blown out of the sky.

"Don't worry. It's going down," Groose assured him. "Knife One, this is Knife Actual. Dropping hot payload on marked tango site, copy?"

"We gotcha. Armament locked and loaded. They don't stand a chance," Knife One told him.

The missile came into view fast. It was a small compound, maybe only a couple hundred meters wide. Several launching turrets dotted the clearing, and Groose could make out a huge, somewhat shiny sheet laying on the compound grounds. The foil was probably lead coated; pulled off at the last second before firing its deadly payload to avoid satellite scans. Pretty ingenious, Groose had to give them that.

"JDAMs hot and primed. Bombs away," he said. The rotating rack of bombs dropped, and the underbelly of the Poe flared to life, as missile after guided missile streaked towards the compound. The Lieutenant Major smiled as Knife Actual and One rained GPS guided, smart computer death down upon the missile launch site.

Fire blossomed, and bright orange petals of flame burst outward. Tendrils of red and yellow roiled, reaching up as if angered. Black smoke, full of charred ash and dust, began to fall back to the earth. There was nothing left of that site but bent, twisted metal limbs and dozens of smaller fires raging as fire as the eye could see. And then the Poes were hurtling past and there was nothing left to see.

Groose flipped the pilots of the other Poe a thumbs up.

"Overlord, this is Knife Actual. Hostile anti-aircraft missiles have been knocked out. Gerudo won't be poking heads out anytime soon."

"Roger that Knife Actual. Return to base for refueling and rearmament. Overlord out."

"Good hunting Raven," Groose whispered as both Poes began to bank west; back to home base. One more successful gun run completed.

* * *

A/N: To anyone who's still out there! We have an urgent transmission! The author of Behold Upon a Pale Horse is still alive, repeat, is _still alive!_ ;)

Please read and review. :D


	11. The Beginning of the End

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 9:37 AM_

Blood, along with the Navy man's brain tissue, bits of bone fragments, and other gore pasted the ground as he fell face first.

Link, still kneeling, managed to remain externally unperturbed, but was screaming inside. He had been sprayed with fresh blood, and could still remember the feeling of a warm spurt of liquid coating his left side.

"Well well. Looks like my trigger finger slipped. _Oops,_" said the Gerudo leader. She paused, as if thinking, then continued, "You know, it's funny. After all this time spent here, you still don't know my name." Link said nothing, just grunted. She ignored his silence, and then said, "It's Samiyah," as if he would actually give a shit after witnessing her murder one of his brothers in arms right in front of him. Then she did something unexpected. Samiyah held out her hand, as if wanting to shake.

Link reached out, warily. When he touched her hand, his face was impassive, but internally, every instinct was screaming at him to get the fuck out and stop touching this bitch.

The Gerudo smiled down at him. "There. That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

Link simply stared up at her in response.

"But this will be," she said.

Link tensed suddenly, trying to remove his hand from her grasp, but Samiyah held on tightly with a grip of iron. Something jabbed him in the shoulder, like a prick. He looked down at his arm, and to his horror, found that the other Gerudo in the room had snuck behind him and stuck a syringe in his arm. As the Gerudo quickly pressurized the syringe's contents, Link became immediately woozier.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, something told him that Samiyah had let go of his hand, but he hardly registered it as he reached for the syringe in an attempt to remove it and pull that _thing_ out of his body. But just the tips of his fingers grazed the syringe, the world suddenly spun, and colors he was viewing dripped into his eyes like somebody was pouring buckets of neon paint directly into his corneas. Curling into the fetal position, Link whimpered as darkness cut down like walls around him. Then nobody else was there, but Lieutenant Commander Link Avalon; nobody else. He was alone.

Alone.

All alone.

* * *

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 9:52 AM_

"Touchdown marines. Go in quiet," Raven said. His boots hit the ground with a soft thud as he jumped down from the Loftwing. Three others leaped out, following him. Rifles drawn, they slowly advanced towards Link's building. Raven's eyes scanned the cityscape for any potential target. All clear. "All right. Hacksaw's location is half a klick west of here. If we have to eliminate someone over there, do it silent."

The rest of his team nodded.

The jogged down an alleyway, shadows protecting them from any hostile eyes. Raven disconcertedly noticed that the high walls of the buildings that provided them the safety of their cloak of darkness could be used to stage a deadly ambush of fire into the tight, cramped walkway. Oh, the irony. Ignoring the temporary _possible_ danger, Raven made a left turn, following his helmet's GPS locationing system.

Then, as they nearly went around the bend, he held up his right hand, then closed it into a fist' standard sign language for "stop." Extending two fingers, he pointed outwards at whatever was outside the turn. 'Two hostiles ahead.' Raven pointed at Shield Two, then at himself. One second later, both of them wheeled out of the alleyway, one standing high and the other kneeling. There were two Gerudo standing, looking around. They looked almost confused, except for the fact that they held large looking guns, Type-84 machine guns, Gerudo made. And in Raven's experience, anybody with a gun that wasn't Hyrulian was a hostile.

Silenced pistols drawn, both men fired two shots; one to the chest and one to the head of each Gerudo. They fell hard, face first to the ground. There was no desperate scramble to avoid the fall, no extension of arms in an attempt to catch themselves before falling, which meant they were dead for sure. Raven and Shield Two rushed out, hooking their arms under the Gerudo's armpits, then dragged the ruined corpses into the shadows of the dark alley. On the way back, Raven stopped momentarily to kick some loose gravel over the bloodstained sand.

Shield Squad kept moving closer to Hacksaw.

Finally, they arrived at an open courtyard. Further down the courtyard, which reminded Raven of an extremely long and wide driveway, lay a nondescript house, made of the standard Gerudo building substance, red adobe bricks.

Raven toggled the display options inside his helmet once, and then everything in his vision turned a ghastly white and gray. Looking at the house for a second, he reported back, "Thermal scopes show four hostiles just inside the door. No sign of a transponder. Shield Three, you're up."

Nabooru Pieta, a half-Gerudo stepped towards the door. She was a jack of all trades, and was magic with locks. Normally Raven would have just planted a small charge on the door, on top of the doorknob to blow out the locking mechanism. Or if it were during an open firefight that forced his immediate action, then he would blast the door open with a shotgun. But in Gerudo Valley, the problem was that with all the houses and buildings packed tightly together in a chaotic urban fashion, a shaped charge might as well have been a megaphone announcing, "Hylians! Over here! Come kill them!" So for now, they would rely on Nabooru to deal with any door in their way.

Pieta reached into her side pouch and pulled out a small bottle containing a clear liquid. Using a small spatula, she doused the inside lip of the door in a lubricant. She had previously assured the commander that it would allow the door to open silent, but Raven wasn't fully convinced, especially since the hinges were on the inside of the door.

She then replaced the bottle, and then took out a thin leather wallet. Upon unfolding it, she revealed a wide assortment of lock picks.

Selecting one from the vast array of picks, she inserted it into the keyhole. The pick slid into place with a soft click. Leaving it inserted, Nabooru then removed another lock pick from her wallet. As she lifted the first pick up, she jammed the second pick in quickly further in than the first. She snorted. 'Three tumbler locks. Easy,' she thought.

Meanwhile, Shield began to grow restless, sweeping rifles over every inch of the plaza. Raven muttered to Nabooru, "Hey could you hurry up? It's not like bad guys are trying to shoot us or anything..."

"Relax commander. This is an art," she replied smoothly.

She deftly removed the first pick quickly, causing all of the tumblers to "bounce" inside their shafts. Two of the tumblers landed on their ledge inside the lock, allowing the third tumbler to be easily picked. This was a technique known as 'raking,' effectively reducing the number of tumblers to be picked in a very time efficient manner. Nabooru didn't bother with putting her ear to the door; she just shifted her wrist slightly upwards with the pick. There was an audible click. The Gerudo punched the air in triumph. "We're in."

Raven nodded. He pointed at the rest of the squad and made a flurry of hand gestures at the building. They all switched to silenced firearms, and then confirmed their readiness over the COM. "Pop the door," he said to Nabooru.

She nodded, and then turned the doorknob. As she pushed the door inwards, slowly, carefully, Raven noted that the rusty-looking hinges moved silently as they bore the door. The commander made a mental note to never doubt Nabooru's abilities again. As soon as the door was slightly ajar, Raven could see that all four Gerudo inside were sitting down on a large plush rug, staring at an ancient bubble screen television. He almost smiled when he saw that they were watching black and white soap operas from the 80's. Shield Squad then rushed in, guns drawn.

The Gerudo stood up, shocked for a split second. And that was how long it took for them to die as Shield unleashed a lethal hail of bullets.

Shield Four looked around the room, and then said, "Hacksaw isn't here, sir."

"Negative. The transponder location marks him _here,_" Raven said, his voice in a tone saying that he would brook no argument.

"Uh...commander?" Shield Two inquired.

"What?" Raven asked, voice cold.

"That transponder lock shows Hacksaw slightly to our west by about four meters, and fifteen meters _underground_."

Shield Four smirked. "If I knew we had to dig, I would have brought my shovel along. Commander."

Raven frowned. He walked to the next room, featuring a small kitchen, again with a large rug covering the ground. Something wasn't right here. How could Link be underground? Unless...

"Shield, move all the rugs. I think I have an idea to Hacksaw's location," Raven said as he pulled aside the heavy Gerudo style rug aside from the floor. "Shield, I got something!"

His squad rushed in.

"Look at this," Raven pointed. Under the rug was a large wood trapdoor with a metal loop that most likely served as an entry point.

"Uh...they were keeping a man under a kitchen?" Shield Four laughed. "That's a great place to hide a dude."

"Nabooru frowned and opened her mouth as if to say something, but Raven beat her to it.

"Can it, Four. You talk too much."

Pieta scowled at Four as she walked up to him. "Yeah _can_ it. Or I am going to kick you in the balls so hard, you will become a woman. Got it?" She demanded.

Four swallowed, and Raven guessed that Four was going pale inside his helmet. "Yeah. I got it." Raven let an awkward silence permeate the room for several more seconds as Four squirmed.

"Alright, let's do this," he said taking mercy on Four. Raven grasped the silver colored hook with both hands then heaved backwards. The trap door flew open. Raven had expected it to be a lot heavier for its size. He peered down into the gloom beneath raven's genetically altered eyes allowed him to see in the dark, and he could make out a flight of stairs leading way down under.

Shouldering his rifle once more, Raven led the way down the stairs. The steps seemed well worn; there was very little gravel or loose dirt. Raven didn't care about cleanliness though; he just cared about the fact that with nothing to kick into the steps beneath, it offered a quieter descent, thus delaying the news of their arrival.

"I can see a door up ahead," Raven said over the COM. It looked heavy, and with a large steel frame surrounding the door, it looked even more imposing. There was a bolt lock on the door, but the entire door had been left open. As Raven got closer, he could see it led to a small, barely lit room. And inside the room was...

"Link is inside the room, I repeat Link is inside the room."

"Link? Who's Link?" asked Four. Despite being a Goddess, not every piece of information was offered to the lower ranks. Most of the Goddesses still knew Link only by his codename Hacksaw for operational purposes.

Raven corrected himself, "Our HVI (Highly Valued Individual) Hacksaw is inside the room with a Gerudo."

Link was indeed inside the room, forced into a kneeling position, with a bag over his head. A Gerudo inside stood over him, using a stun baton to repeatedly and savagely beat him. There were numerous scars that crisscrossed over his back, testimony to beatings both old and new. There was a bloody mess over his left side, and blood trickled down his back. Every time the Gerudo raised the baton for another strike, it came away red.

Then, unexpectedly, the Gerudo stopped her beating, seemingly surprised. Before Raven or any Shield member could react, she pulled a large looking handgun from her waistband and it to Link's head.

"Freeze, Hyrulian, of your friend here gets the privilege of getting his brains blown out onto the floor."

The commander didn't move a muscle. His brain ran faster and sharper than usual, in spite of, or perhaps because of the threat. How could the Gerudo see him and his team? The light inside the room was dim, and definitely not enough to illuminate the whole hallway. With a start, Raven realized that they had left the lights on upstairs, and had left the trap door open. That meant that they were silhouetted against the lights above them. Damn it.

Over his suit's COMS, he told the rest of Shield, "Light up your IR lasers."

The IR lasers were built into most military issue firearms issued by Hyrule. They emitted IR lasers that were invisible to the naked eye, but showed up like a regular laser Hyrulian combat helmet HUDs.

Five blue lasers were centered on the Gerudo's head, neck, right shoulder, left thigh, and right calf; any targets visible even with Link in the way. The Gerudo had no way of knowing what the Hylians were planning, but she stared into the commander's faceplate. It unnerved him somehow, even though he knew that she couldn't even see his eyes.

"Shield Two, check your fire. Shift your shot. We need to make sure Hacksaw comes out of this alive. Make sure her gun doesn't go off.

No confirmation, just a slight shift was Two moved the laser from the Gerudo's forehead to the middle of her pistol; Three shifted aim from the Gerudo's calf back up to her forehead to cover Two. After what seemed like an eternity, as the two sides attempted to stare the other down, Raven said, his voice still calm, "Drop the bitch."

A volley of shots popped loudly, and the woman fell backwards, body smoking, still holding her shorn in half gun.

Threat in the room effectively neutralized, he moved on to Link, or Hacksaw, he corrected himself. "Secure the package," he ordered, pointing at Hacksaw with his chin. Two and Three rushed to Hacksaw's side, pulled out a first aid kid, and began administering various ointments to his cuts to avoid infections. Four tossed Nabooru a small penlight, who nimbly caught it. Shining it into Hacksaw's eyes for several seconds, she then looked up. Catching Raven's gaze, she told him, "His pupils are dilated. He's been drugged."

"Is he stable?" Raven asked, trying to keep the concern out of his voice.

"Yeah, he'll be fine once they wear off. I give him five to ten hours, depending on when they administered the drug."

"All right, pack him up and secure him. Let's get the hell out of here Goddesses."

"Roger."

* * *

A/N: All right! I have the final chapters planned; this is one of two, or one of three concluding chapters. Thanks for reading! Please drop a review. :)


	12. Finale

_A/N: This is it; the last chapter! Thanks to all who have read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story in the past couple months. This has been fun for me to write, and I hope that it was just as fun to read. :) Read and review, and have a nice day!_

* * *

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 10:07 AM_

"Overlord Specter, this is Shield Element. HVI designated Hacksaw is currently in Hyrulian possession. Requesting evac now," Raven said.

"We gotcha Shield. There's a bird en route to the rendezvous point. It'll be there in ten minutes. Don't be late Shield," came Specter's reply.

"You got it. Shield out." Raven looked around the room. "You heard command. Well, what the hell are you waiting around for Goddesses? Let's roll!"

Shield Squad burst into a flurry of activity. Nabooru lifted Avalon over her shoulder with a slight grunt. Link had been in peak physical condition before his capture; even through two weeks in confinement, he probably still weighed eighty kilograms at least. Shield Three and Four removed near empty magazines from their rifles and swapped them out. Raven hit the magazine release on his own M77. He pocketed the dry magazine into a dump pouch, then pulled a magazine from his chest. There was a click as the magazine slid tightly into the magazine well, and then another click as Raven slapped the bolt catch on his rifle, sending a round into the chamber.

"All set?" Raven asked.

Nods from everyone, even from Pieta as she momentarily paused to draw her sidearm with one hand, other arm used to keep Hacksaw in place over her shoulder. They walked out, weapons up and alert. Although they had closed all the doors before shooting, if any Gerudo had happened to be out for a late night stroll and had wandered just a bit too close to the house, they might have heard the report of gunfire. And if that happened, their cover was as good as gone, and they would have to blow their way out of here.

They neared an open fork in the road. Raven made a gesture at Shield Four; two fingers outstretched pointing ahead. _'Take point.'_ Four rushed out, snapping his rifle at potential sites for a Gerudo gunman. Or woman.

"Zulu Element, this is Shield Actual. Please respond, over," said Raven.

Four put his rifle down and then got behind an abandoned food stall. He put his back to it and sweeped the adjacent rooftops with the barrel of his rifle.

"Zulu here."

"I need a sit rep on grid 23A, over."

Four motioned towards Three, touching his middle and index fingers from his visor and then pointing at Three. _'Move up.'_

"Please repeat that Actual. Did you say, grid 23A? Please confirm, over."

"Roger Zulu Element. Grid 23A, repeat, grid 23A. Over," Raven said.

Shield Three ran across the unshielded plaza, boots thudding into the hard rock surface.

"Uh...sir, 23A is crawling with Gerudo snipers. Recommend different route to LZ, over."

Raven's blood ran cold. Immediately, a tense feeling wound in his abdomen, and his mind blanked.

Three kept running. Ten more meters to cover...

Five more meters...

"Get to cover!"

_BAM!_

Shield Three slid to the ground, momentum carrying his body sliding forward.

"SNIPER!" Raven yelled.

Pandemonium broke loose. Four reached forward to drag Three to safety, but another bullet ricocheted on the pebblestones mere inches from his hand.

"Fuck!" Four exclaimed, recoiling. He leapt behind cover, and then shouldered his rifle.

"Go loud Shield!" Raven ordered. "Zulu Element, requesting cover fire on grid 23A. I repeat, requesting covering fire on grid 23A."

"We gotcha Shield. Zulu going loud, over." Several shots popped off, sounding far away. But a second later, one of the buildings overlooking the plaza had part of its wall blown off, debris showering the lower plaza.

"Damn, missed the bastard," came Zulu's voice.

"I got him," came Four's voice. He sounded calm, efficient, and focused, a clear contrast from his normal behaviour. He raised a firearm, but it wasn't his standard M77 rifle. In its place, Four held a H25 standalone, breech-loading, 40mm grenade launcher. He sighted the weapon, and after a second, muttered, "This is for Three." He pulled the trigger, and, although a 40mm grenade is not very large, the effects were easily seen. Whereas the bullets from Zulu had blown holes in the wall, Four simply blew the wall away. The roof collapsed downwards from the lack of support. If a sniper had survived the blast from the grenade, they certainly wouldn't survive the ensuing crush of debris. "Tango down."

Raven ran out to Three. As he was about to flip Three over, the downed Goddess began to shake his head. Rising on unsteady arms, the commander reached out with an extended arm. Three reached out and grasped his arm, then winced slightly as he was yanked to his feet.

"You good?" asked Four.

"Yeah...just banged up. That bullet took the wind out of me, but my armor took most of it."

It was difficult to see Four's expression due to his full face helmet, but from his body language, Raven could see he was much more stable than he had just been when he had killed the Gerudo sniper.

"Well, emotional moment over. Snap out of it Shield. The Gerudo know we're here, and I sure as hell don't want a reception party!"

"Ooh-rah!"

The squad regrouped and began to move quicker than they had previously through the tight Gerudo streets. "Courtyard five hundred meters east. That's our LZ. Let's move our asses." Due to their advantage of being unknown and unseen being blown during the previous exchange of fire, their most valuable asset now was speed. After Shield was safely away, Zulu would take their own bird out of this hellhole.

They maneuvered as best as they could through the winding paths, but more than once they had to backtrack as they walked into a dead end. It was frustrating at times, but they dealt with it. Shield had no other alternative. Raven was thus distracted by the frequent retracing of paths, but then suddenly, after one turn, he found himself facing a Gerudo soldier. She looked just as stunned as he probably was, and they both froze, rifles down. The situation unfolded explosively afterwards. Quite literally, as several snaps sounded out, and bullets found their marks, buzzing like angry hornets. The Gerudo fell face first.

"They know we're here!" Shield reached an even higher intensity as they attempted to find a way to the open courtyard that would serve as their LZ. Finally, two wrong turns later, Raven found the place. "Shield, let's go!" They took up defensive positions, guns focusing on the two entrances to the LZ. Raven checked the mission timer. It had been nine minutes since he had called command. "Spectre, where's that bird? Hacksaw has been recaptured and we need evac now."

A new voice burst in over the COM. "Shield, this is Albatross Six inbound on your position now. ETA one minute."

"Sir, we got Gerudo swarming the place!" Raven snapped back to the moment. Several Gerudo gunman had already arrived at the scene, and were taking potshots at the Hylian squad.

"Return fire!"

Shield eagerly accepted the order. Shield Three reached into his pack, and removed a small disk, reminiscent of a large frisbee. He tapped a small screen on his right forearm, and the disk unfolded into a quadrotor drone. Cocking his left arm back, he tossed the drone into the air, and it took flight. He set it on auto pilot, and the small drone removed a minigun somewhere from inside its chassis. It began to spit rounds down at the Gerudo. Devastation was immediate; the assembled Gerudo began to duck and scramble for cover, and hostile fire dropped by a considerable volume.

Raven raised his M77, and sighted one Gerudo who was a bit too eager to shoot anything and everything that moved. Most have been a rookie, but it was a shame; she wasn't about to stay alive long enough to understand her mistake. He held his breath for a second, then pulled the trigger. Even as the rifle drilled back into his shoulder, he knew the shot was good as the Gerudo's head burst apart, corpse falling.

Looking around, he saw Three and Four covering the entrance by the west, while Two had already laid Hacksaw down on the ground and was firing at targets down the northward entrance.

"Zulu Element, this is Shield Actual. Requesting covering fire at primary LZ; grid...27B, over."

"Request confirmed. Covering fire inbound."

Raven ducked his head and then sprinted behind a stone wall on Two's side. Chips of concrete, dust, and other debris flew and the wall vibrated as rounds thudded into it. Waiting for a gap, he motioned at Pieta. She sprang from cover and lifted two of her compact custom tooled submachine guns. She swept her submachine guns from right to left, rounds spewing at hundreds of rounds per minute. The Gerudo ducked down behind cover again. Nabooru motioned back at Raven, as if to say, _'you can do your thing now.'_ He reached into a side pouch, and removed two grenades. Tossing one to Pieta, he removed the pin from his own.

"On three. One...Two...Three. Frag out!" Raven called out. Four seconds later, the alley erupted into flames. Gerudo on that end wouldn't be bothering them for a while. Then, when the smoke cleared, he could see a full line of Gerudo, ballistic shields raised in a line. Bullets began to fill the air around him.

"God damn it Albatross! Where are you?" Raven yelled over the COM. It had been far over a minute.

"Negative, Shield. Primary exfil point is too hot, repeat, primary exfil location is too hot. We're moving to the secondary exfil point, at Element Zulu's location. Sorry," Albatross tossed in. Not like it mattered.

"What the _fuck_ did he just say?" yelled Four. The annoyance, anger, even, in his voice was obvious.

"You heard him, Shield. We gotta move! Pack up the perimeter. Two, bury that entrance. Three, get that drone on the north entrance. Buy us some time. We'll clear a way through the west one," said Raven.

"Roger!" The drone whirred as it moved northward. Raven could hear the exclamations from the Gerudo as it came over the wall. Shield Three didn't wait for them to get over their surprise, and let loose with the minigun. The commander looked over at Two. She caught a small box from Four, then placed it at the base of one of walls at the north entrance, then ran back to the west entrance. Raven looked back up at the drone. It looked like a pile of scrap; a bullet must have clipped one of the rotors, as it was flying extremely unsteadily and one rotor was completely wrecked.

Raven nodded at Two. She held her hand out at Four, who tossed her a olive tan cylinder. She popped the cap on the detonator and pressed the trigger. The satchel charges at the north gate detonated spectacularly, orange flames blossoming outwards, and the walls collapsed outwards, blocking the entrance.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go go go!" Raven nodded at the west entrance. Shield snapped up, weapons at the ready for any Gerudo.

* * *

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 10:20 AM_

Saria looked over at Kafei. "Shield's coming our way. We have to cover them until they get over here."

"Gotcha, boss," said Kafei, never taking his gaze away from his sniper scope. For several minutes, the two of them lay prone, waiting for the eventual arrival of Shield. Then a dramatic flare of gunfire and Raven said, "Zulu Element, this is Shield! We're coming in on a Gerudo technical east of your position. Don't shoot us out, over!"

Saria looked over at Kafei, who shrugged.

Together, they hefted sniper rifles from their carrying handles, grabbed kits, a radio beacon, and hustled off towards the eastern side of the building.

Just as soon as they had re-set up shop, a large white pickup truck with a flatbed burst through a wooden roadblock on a wide road. A heavy looking machine gun mounted on the flatbed was being operated by a Hylian; obvious, due to his armor. He was firing wilding at targets down the road.

"Zulu, weapons free!" came Raven's voice.

Saria set her targeting bead on a Gerudo who was giving chase on foot. She held an RPG, and so, unfortunately for her, would have to be the first to go. Exhaling for a second, Saria held her breath, stabilizing her rifle. Her cheek was hot against the padded rest of her rifle and she could feel her heart beating. _Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum-_

-and Saria pulled the trigger twice. _Clink, clink._ Two smoking shells ejected from the rifle, and before they even fell to the ground, the Gerudo's chest had erupted into a gory mess. But more importantly, the Gerudo dropped the grenade launcher. But before Saria could relax, a gray streak of smoke and flame erupted from down the street. An explosion detonated several meters away from the moving jeep, but it was still close enough to rock the Hyrulian manned vehicle, still moving extremely fast. _Another RPG._

"Shit!"

"Get eyes on that RPG!"

"Taking fire!"

"Fire, fire!"

"Tango down!"

"RPG down!" Saria saw a Gerudo nearly cut in half from a hail of bullets from the jeep.

Kafei fired several more shots down at the chasing Gerudo, taking two of them out, and blowing the arm off of another. They ducked down, hiding behind walls, burnt out cars, old rusty barrels, whatever would provide cover from the hostile Hylian fire.

The technical, now splattered red, screeched to a half in front of the building. Shield Squad piled out and hustled up to the roof of the building. From their body language, they looked exhausted, like they were about drop dead at any time on the floor. Their armor was dented and in bad condition. And walking with them, still alive and mostly on his feet, was Link. Saria walked out towards them.

"Glad you could make it to the party Shield."

Link chuckled, though he still looked slightly dazed. "We tried our best to make it on time."

Two looked up, ignoring the pleasantries. "Where's evac?"

Kafei, who had not got up, muttered an audible, "Oh shit."

Everyone looked up at the sky, and had enough time to see a helicopter in flames, dropping altitude quickly. It fell and it was so close, Saria could see the tail rotor that was up in smoke, orange fire consuming the rotor.

"This is Albatross Six, we are going down, repeat, to any Hylian forces in the area, this is Albatross Six. We are hit! We are going down! Sorry boys. You're on your ow-"

Whatever else that the pilot was about to say was cut off as there a large sounding crash, like metal screeching on metal, and the entire building shook as the Loftwing collided with the building. Saria stumbled as the roof vibrated. "Shit."

"That was our ride out of here. We're stuck up here without it," muttered Raven. "Command, we're going to need another bird! Albatross Six is down!"

The other members of Shield stood around, silent, but then suddenly, the building shook again, much more severely than before. Then again. And again. And again. Whereas before, the roof had simply shaken, now, entire chunks of the roof were dropping out.

"I think that Loftwing's missiles are popping off," yelled Link. Then the roof just crumbled inwards, glass, plaster, everything just falling in and down.

The Hylians ran away from the epicenter of the rapidly deteriorating roof, and Link found himself standing at the edge of the building. As the Shield and Zulu members readied rappelling ropes and anchors, another explosion tossed Link forward, off the edge of the building. Reaching out, he managed to catch the lip of the roof. Straining, every muscle in his mistreated body screaming, Link pulled his other arm up, about to pull himself up.

And then the roof came away completely, and the handhold he had crumbled away with him. As he was falling, Link saw the rest of the Hylians twisting through the air, arms extended in a X, classical skydiving maneuvers. Not that it would matter though, being too close to the ground for physics to save them. But maybe if they had a large enough piece of fabr-

Black.

* * *

_Gerudo Valley, 2002 BM, 10:26 AM_

Link coughed. It hurt his chest to cough a little bit. He coughed again. This time though, it didn't hurt so much. He saw that there was a block of what used to be the Gerudo banking building plopped on top of him, pinning him to the ground. That must have been why his chest hurt. Avalon put both hands on the block, then twisted to one side. The debris slid off his body smoothly. Raven stood over him, arm outstretched towards him.

"You good?"

Another cough. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Raven pulled him up. "We got one in the technical, to fend off any Gerudo trying to get through the perimeter. Two more taking the south side, in case any try getting any smart ideas."

Link nodded. He looked down at a piece of masonry lying on the ground, with a person kneeling next to it. Looking closer, he saw that it was a person kneeling next to another person on the ground. Upon even closer inspection, he saw that the masonry was pinning one person down by their ankle, and there was a person kneeling next to that person.

He looked down at the pinned Hylian, and to his surprise, saw Saria. Shit. Saria whispered something. Link bent down to hear it.

"What did you say?"

"You gotta cut off the leg," she said.

"What?" Link said, shocked.

"Just do it!" she snapped. Her voice came out harsher than she probably anticipated.

"Sir, we got Gerudo overrunning the perimeter! Shield Three and Zulu Two falling back from the south side. Setting satchel charges to slow them down, but we have to move!" came the COM.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

"Raven, I'm going to need your knife," he waved at Shield Actual. Raven stared at him for a second, then removed his knife from its sheath, flipping it with an elegant twirl so that the blade was in his hand, and the grip was facing Link.

Avalon took it, feeling the solid touch of synthetic polyester. He was less assured about the task ahead of him.

Saria yelled again, "The bone is already powdered, it's just flesh and uniform keeping me here. Do it, cut it now!"

The Hylian leaning over her placed his hand on her chest and arm to keep her down, kneeling on the other arm to prevent her from flailing. Link moved to her leg, mind blank. He drew the knife back, but something in him was refusing to cut off Saria's foot.

"Just do it, god damn it!"

Link plunged the knife into her ankle, feeling something snap. Then he forced his arm downwards to cut through the tendon and flesh. It moved through sluggishly, though it was a relatively clean cut. It took only a second, but felt like an eternity.

The Hylian kneeling got off of Saria and began to lift her towards the hijacked jeep.

"We have to go!" yelled Link.

"Shit, is she dead?" asked the Hylian.

"She's not dead, she's just passed out. You got a Combat Life Saver mention, you know this Four!"

"It was like a three hour course!" he yelled back.

"Goddamn it, just lift her," said Raven. They carried her to the jeep, laying her in the flatbed. Link noticed that she left a trail of blood all the way to the jeep. The rest of the Hylians piled in. Several seconds later, dull explosions shook the earth as the satchel charges went off. Dust flew everywhere in plumes.

Raven grabbed the wheel and started driving. Saria was still in the back, with Shield Two and Link. The back window of the jeep had been shot out, so Link could easily yell to the Hylians inside, "Do any of you have any cloth or something I could tie something with?" He was handed a spare shirt. It would have to do. He took the whole shirt, cut it down one side so that it was just one large piece of fabric, and then used it as a bandage. Link tied it tightly on her calf, just before her ankle, to reduce any further blood loss.

"You have to drive faster; she's going to shock," Shield Two told Raven.

"Goddess damn it, I'm trying. I'm _trying!"_ he replied. Then, over the COM, said, "Command this is Shield Actual. We have WIA (Wounded In Action) and need immediate medical attention. We are approaching the border in a white jeep. Ping us, do whatever you need to do, but we need a bird out of here ASAP, over."

"We gotcha Shield. Two Loftwings in on rapid approach, coming in on your location. ETA, ten minutes."

"Roger that, over."

After what seemed like forever, just crossing dull sandy terrain, finally, two helicopters came into view.

"We have confirmed visual on jeep. Please identify, over."

"This is Shield and Zulu squads, requesting immediate evac, over!"

"Haha, we're coming to you Shield Actual. Hang on tight, we have you."

The Hylians stopped the truck, and they all disembarked more unorganized (like an absolute gagglefuck, as Sheik would have said) then they had been when trying to drive out of that Gerudo street. The Loftwings rapidly grew, and they touched down, blowing sand in every which way.

"Come on!" motioned one of the chief's aboard. The Hylians lifted Saria and sprinted in towards the two Loftwings. One of them had an available med bay, so they hefted her into that one, then they all mounted the second Loftwing. "C'mon, let's get the fuck out of here!"

* * *

_Unknown, 2002 BM, 12:16 PM_

Link sat in the cold troop bay, mind white, devoid of any thought. The last three weeks had been a unique ordeal, but recent events always had a way of coming back to haunt one's mind, so he tried to forget the torture, forget Saria, forget her expression, forget how he cut her leg off, forget the feeling of cutting through warm gore...

Damn it.

His inflections were cut off, however, as Raven stood up suddenly, body tense. He pressed two fingers to his COM earpiece, everybody in the Loftwing staring at him. Then, just as suddenly, he relaxed.

"Saria made it everybody. She's stable," he said, throwing out a thumbs up.

Link smiled. He leaned back and rested his head on the bare metal frame of the Loftwing. Maybe everything wouldn't be so bad after all, he thought before as he fell asleep.

* * *

A/N: Well, you made it to the end! Thanks for reading! :) I hope you enjoyed this story, and if you did, please read my newest story, _To Hoist the Black Flag_


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